Bitkom: People are overwhelmed by the flood of news online

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People are overwhelmed by the masses of information and news that can be found online. One in two people said this in a survey conducted by the industry association Bitkom. On the one hand, this concerns the amount of information, but also the question of which sources can be trusted.

"A functioning democracy needs informed citizens. Considering the increasing amount of information from a constantly growing number of journalistic and non-journalistic sources online, it has become difficult for many people to distinguish fact from fiction. Many can no longer find their way through the stream of news," says Bitkom CEO Dr. Bernhard Rohleder.

More than 1000 people aged 16 and over were surveyed. Around half of the people stated that they read news on the Internet several times a day. 32 percent said they do this once a day, 13 percent several times a week and 5 percent said they read even less frequently. Overall, half of those surveyed complained that they often felt overwhelmed. What's more, 58% said they often did not know which news they could trust on the Internet. 62 percent said that they sometimes reduce their news consumption when it becomes too much for them.

AI as a curse and blessing for news

Rohleder says that news escapism is understandable in times of war and crisis, but in the long term it paves the way for disinformation and fake news. The press release for the study also states: "The need for orientation when it comes to news on the internet is currently extremely high: 90 percent of people who absorb news online want a place on the internet where they can find reliable and true information, considering the abundance of news." Currently, however, this seems to be becoming even more difficult in view of the flood of AI-generated content. Even Google is fighting against content that it declares "unhelpful" with a core update. Not only do AI chatbots spread deliberate misinformation, they also hallucinate - answering incorrectly because they can't do any better. For example, studies have indicated that it is better not to use AI chatbots to educate yourself politically because ChatGPT and co. cannot even name the leading party candidates correctly.

However, respondents are not bothered by AI content per se. 30 percent would even like it if an AI could provide them with suitable information. However, 92% say that AI content should be labeled as such. "Artificial intelligence holds great potential. In the future, it can help to identify false and disinformation and offer users better orientation in the news jungle," says Rohleder. "However, in the wrong hands, AI can also be a powerful tool for manipulation and disinformation."

Young and older people consume differently

According to Bitkom, 90 percent of German internet users consume news about current events online. 78% use apps and news websites for this. 44 percent look at social media. A quarter of people get information via messenger, 26% also watch YouTube channels and 18% listen to podcasts. A further 17% subscribe to newsletters or special briefings.

The study also asked about the breakdown of apps and news websites: Most people look at national, local and international print media, while 44 percent consume content from public and private TV and radio stations. 35 percent look at the home pages of Internet access providers such as t-online, gmx and web.

Unsurprisingly, older people enjoy reading text and younger people prefer to look at pictures with short texts. Many respondents also admitted that they often only read headlines, while at the same time complaining that headlines are often too sensational and that texts do not necessarily correspond to this.

Among people under the age of 30 who use social media to get information, Instagram is clearly in the lead (90 percent), followed by WhatsApp (50 percent), TikTok (44 percent) and Facebook (39 percent). At 27%, X is used very little for news consumption. This is probably not only due to Elon Musk and the changes to the platform. X and Twitter were also previously a platform that was primarily used by a specific group of people, including politicians and journalists, who in turn disseminated content more widely.

Among the over-30s, Facebook is far ahead with 68% when it comes to which social networks are used to obtain information. This is followed by WhatsApp (67%), Instagram (50%), Telegram (24%), TikTok (23%), X (17%) and LinkedIn (13%).

Topics of misinformation

Most people in the survey stated that misinformation is dangerous for social cohesion. Most respondents also said that they had seen false information on the internet in the past twelve months. In contrast, 18 percent said they had not seen any false information. According to the respondents, the topics included misinformation about refugees, immigration, Russia, the war of aggression in Ukraine, the Israel-Gaza conflict and, in general, politics and political parties, the environment and celebrities. More than 90 percent said it was important to teach media skills at school.

(emw)