In Finland, trust in the news has been more common throughout the survey’s history than in other countries. However, trust varies among population groups. Women rely on the news slightly more often than men and young people rely less often than older people. High-income and highly educated people, on the other hand, rely more on the news than low-income and lower-educated people. In addition, among those with a very right-wing political attitude, the proportion of people who trust the news is lower than among those who position themselves closer to the left or the political centre. Of the people who voted for different parties, trust is the lowest among the voters of the Finns Party.
“The decline in media trust among right-wingers may reflect public debate, in which a few representatives of the Finns Party in particular have accused the mainstream media of being part of the Green Left,” says Esa Reunanen, researcher at Tampere University in charge of the country report for Finland.
The study investigated how the news media could increase respondents’ trust in the news. More than a quarter of the respondents believe that confirming truthfulness, such as better fact checking and avoiding rumours, increases trust. Approximately one-fifth of the respondents, on the other hand, would like more impartiality in the news, and another about one-fifth also advocates increased transparency.
In Finland, the proportion of people interested in the news is higher than in most of the other countries in the comparison. 63 per cent of the Finns are very or quite interested in the news. The news is of more general interest to men (71%) than women (56%). Among highly educated, highincome and elderly people, the share of people interested in the news is also higher than average.
27 per cent of the Finns say that they avoid the news at least occasionally. News avoidance is slightly more common among women, young people and low-income people. One-half of the Finnish respondents who avoid the news at least occasionally say that the reason for the avoidance is the negative impact of the news on one’s mood, and almost as many say that it is due to excessive focus on wars and conflicts.
According to the study, social media has increased its share as the main source of news for young adults from ten per cent to 26 per cent in ten years. The share among all respondents has doubled to 11%. However, in an international comparison, the proportion of people using social media as their main news source in Finland is the second-lowest, and the majority of young adults also follow journalistic news media on a weekly basis.
Social media channels emerged at the forefront when respondents were asked what they consider to be significant sources to get false and misleading information. Finns most frequently mentioned TikTok (66%), X (55%) and Facebook (53%). News sites (14%) and face-to-face conversations (9%) were mentioned significantly less frequently. In the Finnish country report, Inkeri Pasanen, deputy editor-in-chief of Keskisuomalainen, emphasises the importance of media literacy as TikTok grows in popularity as a news channel for young people: “TikTok is full of addictive ‘news’”. In this flood of misinformation and disinformation, conventional, responsible and fact-based journalism must be able to justify its activities more transparently and clearly.” In the Finnish country report, the results of this year’s survey were commented on by Melissa Heikkilä, AI correspondent for Financial Times, Jukka Huikko, CEO of Ylä-Satakunta Sanomalehti Oy and editor-in-chief of Ylä-Satakunta, Inkeri Pasanen, editor-in-chief of Keskisuomalainen, Sonja Saarikoski, author and editor-in-chief of Uusi Juttu, and Joni Tuominen, producer in charge of social media for MTV Uutiset.
The Reuters s Institute Digital News Report compares the use of news in 48 countries. The information is based on a questionnaire with approximately 2,000 respondents from each participating country. The survey is conducted annually, and Finland has been included since 2014. The report is funded by the Media Industry Research Foundation of Finland. This year’s survey was conducted in January– February as an online survey by the research institute YouGov.
More information
Noora Alanne,
Executive Director,
Media Industry Research Foundation of Finland
Esa Reunanen,
Senior Research Fellow,
Tampere University Research Centre for Communication Sciences Taru
Project website
The project composes a report that presents the key findings of Reuters Institute Digital News Report in Finnish from the point of view of Finland. The project also produces a country page about Finland in the international report and a slide set that illustrates the main findings from the Finnish point of view. The reports and slide sets can be downloaded at the Finnish project page.