An increasing proportion of people say they avoid reading, watching or listening to the news. According to this year’s edition of the Reuters Institute’s Digital News Report, 40% of people say they sometimes or often avoid the news, up from 29% in 2017. At 41%, the South Africans who took part in the survey were in line with the global average.

The top eight reasons people avoid the news are:

– It has a negative effect on their mood

– They are worn out by the amount of news

– There is too much coverage of conflict/war

– There is too much coverage of politics

– There is nothing they can do with the information

– It leads to arguments they’d rather avoid

– It doesn’t feel relevant to their lives

– It’s too hard to understand