[ecrea] Nine-country study of news consumption

REUTERS INSTITUTE DIGITAL NEWS REPORT 2013 – a nine-country study of 
cross-media news consumption in the digital culture

One of the largest comparative studies of online news habits ever 
carried out reveals national differences in our online behaviour. This 
is the second of the annual Reuters Institute Digital News surveys 
published by Reuters Institute for the Study of Journalism (RISJ) at 
Oxford University. You Gov online polls commissioned by RISJ were 
conducted with 11,000 online users in the UK, US, Denmark, France, 
Germany, Spain, Italy, Brazil and Japan.

For instance, the survey shows surprising national differences in the 
rate of online participation. The Spanish (27%), Italians (26%), and 
Americans (21%) were more than twice as likely to comment on a news 
story via a social network as the British (10%). Meanwhile urban 
Brazilians were five times more likely to comment on a news site than 
the Germans or Japanese surveyed, and nearly half (44%) shared a news 
story on a weekly basis via a social network, with around one third 
(32%) doing so by email.

Study author Nic Newman, a Research Associate at the Reuters Institute 
for the Study of Journalism and digital strategist, said: ‘Our findings 
suggest that the culture of a country is the main driver for how we 
engage with online news – playing an even greater part than the 
technical tools and devices we have to access it. People living in 
Brazil, Italy and Spain have much higher levels of interaction, both 
with the news sites and with each other, sharing and commenting about 
news stories. By contrast, although the Japanese appear to embrace the 
non traditional news sites, they have the lowest level of online and 
offline participation, followed by Germany, Denmark and the UK.’

The full 108-page report is available online on a dedicated new website 
(www.digitalnewsreport.org) containing slidepacks, charts, and raw data 
tables, with a licence that encourages reuse. The website is designed so 
it can also be used for mobile and tablet devices. A description of the 
methodology is available with the complete questionnaire.



This is the second in what the RISJ hope will be an annual series of 
reports that tracks the transition of the news industry towards an 
increasingly digital and multi-platform future.



Sponsors of this year’s research include Google, BBC, Ofcom, France 
Télévisions, and Newsworks, as well as RISJ’s academic partners the Hans 
Bredow Institute in Hamburg and Roskilde University, Denmark.



For further information, please contact



Kim Christian Schrøder and Rasmus Kleis Nielsen

Department of Communication, (kimsc /at/ ruc.dk) and (rkleis /at/ ruc.dk)



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