Reading the news was not in 2024 the most popular cultural activity online, as it was in 2020. Eurostat’s latest data show a shift in internet users' cultural preferences in the EU towards audiovisual and music content. Groups of 65-74 age, remain the exception.
By Eirini PolydorouReading the news online was the most preferable cultural activity of internet users in 2020 but not anymore.
Findings of Eurostat’s new report show a decline in the share of internet users reading online news sites, newspapers or magazines between 2020 and 2024 (by - 5 percentage points).
A shift was observed towards audiovisual content (by 5 percentage points) and listening to music (by 4 percentage points). Playing or downloading games remained stable.
The decrease of internet users' interest in reading news takes further dimensions in an era of growing challenges for the media and while the EU focuses on srengthening the news sector, including in the European Democracy Shield.
According to Eurostat's article, the downward trend of internet users reading online news was observed across all socio-economic categories.
Most significant decreases were recorded for:
- users aged 16-24 (-7 percentage points)
- women (-5 percentage points)
- users with no or a low level of formal education (-7 percentage points)
- people living in towns and suburbs (-6 percentage points)
- students (-7 percentage points).
The smallest decrease was found for users aged 45-54 (- 2 percentage points).
Reading the news online remained of higher preference than watching videos, only for the group of internet users aged between 65-74 years.
Video consumption as the most common form of online cultural participation
In 2024, the public in the EU used the internet first of all to watch TV or video-streams (79% of users) and secondly to read the news (70%). The third reason was to listen to music (65%) and the fourth was to play or download games (34%) (click on image to enlarge).
Video consumption in 2024 prevailed, even in socio-economic groups that were found to favour reading-based online cultural activities in2020. Such groups included:
- women
- people with medium or higher levels of formal education
- residents of both cities and rural areas
- both employed and economically inactive persons
Online watching of video content was found to be the first most common cultural activity in 17 countries, and reading the news in 10.
Listening to music and playing games was not first in any of the 27 EU countries (click on image to enlarge).
Listening to music was second most popular in Estonia, the Netherlands, Portugal, Romania, and almost second -as almost equal to reading news- in Spain, Italy, Slovenia, Sweden and Norway.
Playing or downloading games had highest shares in Denmark (52%) and the Netherlands (50%), remaining however the least favoured use in all EU countries.
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Image by ai subarasiki from Pixabay
