More people are turning away from news, describing it as depressing, relentless and boring, a global study suggests.

Almost four in 10 (39%) people worldwide said they sometimes or often actively avoid the news, compared with 29% in 2017, according to the report by Oxford University’s Reuters Institute.

Wars in Ukraine and the Middle East may have contributed to people’s desire to switch off the news, the report’s authors said.

It said that news avoidance is now at record high levels.

A total of 94,943 adults across 47 countries were surveyed by YouGov in January and February for this year’s Digital News Report.

It comes at a time when billions of people around the world have been going to the polls in national and regional elections.

The report found that elections have increased interest in the news in a few countries, including the United States.

However, the overall trend remains firmly downwards, according to the study.

Around the world, 46% of people said they were very or extremely interested in the news – down from 63% in 2017.

In the UK, interest in news has almost halved since 2015.

“The news agenda has obviously been particularly difficult in recent years,” the report’s lead author Nic Newman told BBC News.

“You’ve had the pandemic [and] wars, so it’s a fairly natural reaction for people to turn away from the news, whether it’s to protect their mental health or simply wanting to get on with the rest of their lives.”

Source: BBC