(Montreal) Trust in news media continues to decline in Canada. Fewer than two in five Canadians trust journalistic information in 2024, according to a report published by the Center for Media Studies.

Some 39 per cent of Canadians trust “most news,” a drop of one percentage point from last year, according to the document.

The indicator has been declining for years. This is the “fundamental problem” of the media sector, according to the director of the Center for Media Studies, Colette Brin.

This is the lowest percentage since figures began being compiled in 2016. That year, 55% of citizens surveyed trusted most news.

However, 73% of Canadians continue to follow the news every day, the survey reveals.

The Center for Media Studies report is the Canadian installment of the Digital News Report, an international survey conducted by Reuters’ Institute for the Study of Journalism at Oxford University that brings together similar data from 47 countries.

In light of this information, Brin says trust in the media is a global issue. “We can’t say: ‘It’s the fault of the media here’ because it’s a general trend.”

Among French speakers, the confidence rate drops from 49 to 46%. It remains much lower among English speakers at 37%, the same proportion as in 2023.

“Anglophones are more concerned with distinguishing truth from falsehood in information,” explains Roland-Yves Carignan, professor at the Media School in digital media and journalism. Conversely, “there is a stronger collective among French speakers. People trust information more. »

Several problems persist in the media environment, according to Ms. Brin. The question of financing is one. The enormous mass of information published and shared, increasingly heavy, is another. “In general, many indicators are declining, and we see that this continues.”

Roland-Yves Carignan agrees. “People complain that the amount of information out there is becoming overwhelming,” he says.

According to him, a reduction in the circulation of information and a regulation of this information would help increase the population’s trust in the media. We must therefore “rethink the structure of digital media, which is, I agree, a very large program”.

In 2024, news sites and apps were used more for information than last year, at 30%, an increase of three percentage points.

The slow descent of television as an information tool continues. “We move from information read to information seen more and more,” says Mr. Carignan.

Social media was the primary source of access to online news for 23% (a drop of four percentage points) of respondents, and 16% for French speakers (a drop of 7 percentage points), the highest percentage low since 2018.

Meta’s blocking of Canadian and foreign news on Facebook and Instagram has been in place since August 2023 in response to the passage of the Online News Act which would have required it to pay royalties to Canadian media.

Specialized media are not affected by the blocking.

Although its effects are difficult to identify, the blocking of Meta news would not have had a devastating impact. Since the blocking began, news sites have seen an increase in their traffic, says Brin. “But not enough to compensate for the [financial] losses that were incurred with the blocking.” The negative impacts are stronger on local and Indigenous media, she adds. They are also more felt in French-language media.

Interestingly, the proportion of Canadians getting their news on Instagram increased by 3 percentage points from 2023 to 13%. Conversely, fewer Canadians get their news on Facebook than last year (25% in 2024 versus 29% in 2023).

Is it worrying that so many Canadians get their news on platforms where news sites are banned?

It is difficult to answer this question, says Roland-Yves Carignan, but one thing is certain, the information on Facebook and Instagram is not necessarily bad. “The media’s definition of information may not be the same as the public’s,” he says.

You still have to ensure that it is of quality, reliable and verified, he says.

Regarding artificial intelligence (AI), 52% of survey respondents said they were uncomfortable with news produced primarily by AIs with human supervision. However, only 27% of respondents are uncomfortable with AI assisting a human journalist.

This is positive according to Colette Brin. “There is a value placed [by the public] on human editorial work, it’s encouraging.”

The Center for Media Studies will hold a roundtable discussion Monday on the findings of its report.

The survey was conducted online by the firm YouGov. A total of 2,014 Canadians, including 430 French-speaking Canadians, were questioned about their consumption and perception of news media. An additional 1,026 French-speaking participants were surveyed in a self-contained sample.