The Know Daily - Monday 17 June 2024

_{Read in 5m 36s ∙ Listening to Normani ∙}

🗞️ State of the news | ♻️ Bottle business | 🥪 Sandwich supply

A reforesting initiative in central Asia is bettering the lives of nearby residents 🌳 In the 1960s, the Aral Sea - a lake between Uzbekistan and Kazakhstan - began drying out, leaving behind toxic salt and dust. But officials are planting a forest in the dried-out lakebed, to stop sandstorms from reaching nearby villages and improve residents’ health. 

🗞️ State of the news

More and more people are turning away from the news, an annual report by Oxford University’s Reuters Institute has found. 

Tell me more. 
Almost 100,000 people in 47 countries were surveyed for this year’s Digital News Report. 39% of people worldwide said they sometimes or often actively avoid the news, compared with 29% in 2017. In the UK, the proportion of those “extremely or very interested” in the news fell dramatically between 2015 and 2024, from 70% to 38%. 

What’s behind this? 
A few different things. The report’s lead author Nic Newman told BBC News that the news agenda “has obviously been particularly difficult” in recent years, with the COVID-19 pandemic and ongoing conflicts in Ukraine and the Middle East. 

Many respondents also said the “negative nature” of the news itself made them feel “anxious and powerless”, with the report concluding that publishers may better serve the public’s needs if they also cover stories that provide “a basis for occasional optimism”.

What else did the report find?
🗞️ Trust in the news remained stable over the past year at 40% worldwide, but it’s still lower than at the height of the COVID-19 pandemic.

🗞️ Concern over online misinformation has risen. 59% expressed concern over distinguishing between what is real and fake online, with worries about AI-generated content playing a role.

🗞️ That figure was notably higher in South Africa (81%) and the US (72%), two countries holding important elections this year.

What we’re taking away:
For us at The Know, the report reminds us why we’re on a mission to transform people’s relationship with the news. Our 5-minute newsletter is designed to stop the doomscroll (39% of people say they feel “worn out” by the amount of news these days) and we always highlight stories of progress to leave you feeling hopeful. So we want to know:

And finally, we want to say thank you. The report also looked at how many people pay for online news - and in the UK, just 8% did last year. So to each and every one of you who has donated to The Know, we appreciate it so much.