Digital Media News

Australians are consuming more news after several years of declining interest, but the ways people access and engage with news continue to fragment, according...

Artificial intelligence has become the leading concern for Australian journalists, overtaking disinformation as the biggest perceived threat to public interest journalism, according to the Medianet 2026 Australian Media Landscape Report. The annual report found that 68 per cent of surveyed journalists identified changes in how people consume information through AI-powered search and AI-generated summaries as the most significant threat to public interest journalism in 2025.  The issue surpassed disinformation and fake news, which had topped the survey for the previous five years. Other frequently identified concerns included declining trust in media organisations (66 per cent), the spread of disinformation (64 per cent), lack of newsroom resources and staff (60 per cent), and newsroom closures (53 per cent).  More...

Australians are consuming more news after several years of declining interest, but the ways people access and engage with news continue to fragment, according to the Digital News Report: Australia 2026 released by the University of Canberra's News & Media Research Centre. The report found that news consumption increased over the past year, driven largely by stronger engagement among younger Australians and women, while social media has become a more prominent gateway to news.  At the same time, researchers said trust in news remains mixed, concerns about misinformation continue to grow, and younger audiences are increasingly turning to creators and influencers alongside traditional news sources. News interest rebounds According to the report, 56 per cent of Australians now access...