• Mistrust reaches a critical point among the youngest: only 19% of those under 24 trust the news

• 37% of Spaniards have no interest in the news and do not trust it, compared to 22% who trust it and are interested in it.

The best that can be said about Spanish citizens' trust in the news is that distrust seems to have found its ground. There are practically no significant changes with respect to 2023 and only 33% of those surveyed say they usually trust the news compared to 39% who are skeptical sample . This is the third consecutive year in which more Spaniards say they distrust the news than trust it. 

 
Although there are no differences in the overall figures, the analysis by age sample shows some significant changes with respect to 2023. As usual, distrust is the preserve of the youngest, but this year the loss of trust has worsened among the youngest. y for the first time less than 20% of under-24s trust the newsin 2022, when in 2022 that figure was more than 33%. The confidence average in the 46 countries analyzed in the study in this age group is 37%. 

At the other demographic extreme, 42% of those over 65 tend to trust, compared to 29% who distrust. In this case, the percentage of skeptics has dropped five percentage points, from 35% to 29%. 

Comparison with other countries

Compared to the 46 countries surveyed in 2024, Spain continues to be among the group of countries with the lowest trust in news in general. On average, 40% of citizens surveyed tend to trust the news (compared to 33% in Spain). Among the countries with the highest trustworthiness are Finland (69%), Kenya (64%) and Nigeria (61%). At the other extreme, Hungary and Greece (23%) and Slovakia (25%) are the countries with the least trust in the news. 

 
Spain continues to belong to the group of fifteen countries in which net confidence (difference between trusting and distrustful) is negative; that is, there are more skeptics than trusting issue in the news. Greece and Hungary lead in this position, with 40% distrustful and 23% trusting. At the other extreme, Finland and Hong Kong are the countries where respondents show the greatest trust in news in general. In the case of Finland, 69% trust versus 15% skeptical (55% and 8% in Hong Kong). 

More trust in the media one consumes: third person effect

The study usually asks respondents how much trust they place in news that they themselves consume. For yet another year and practically unchanged from the previous year, Spaniards trust the news they consume directly (40%) more than news in general (33%). This effect is known as the third person effect. This is a psychological phenomenon whereby people tend to believe that media content affects others more than themselves.

This effect reflects a dissociation in the perception of influence between others and the self, assuming that the individual considers him/herself less susceptible to the effects of the exhibition media than the rest of the population. In the context of trust in the media, this effect manifests itself in Spaniards having more trust in the news they directly consume (40%) compared to their trust in news in general (33%), suggesting a perception of higher quality and credibility in the news they consume than in that employed by others.

Compared to 2023, the percentage of respondents who do not trust the news they consume directly is down two percentage points to 29%. 

30% of Spaniards are neither interested in the news nor trust it

Based on the Degree of trust/distrust in the news and the level of interest/disinterest in information, four years ago a typology of the Spanish population was established. Thus, in the first place we would have those respondents called information ninis, because they declare to have neither interest nor trust in the news. Both in Spain and in the average of the countries analyzed, this is the largest group : 37% of those surveyed state that they have neither interest nor confidence in the news. 

The second largest group in Spain includes those who say they have a leave confidence in the news but a high interest in current affairs. They represent 30% of the total, seven points more than in the average of the rest of the countries analyzed (23%). 

 
Those surveyed who trust the news and are also interested in it account for 22% of the total in Spain, compared to 24% in the rest of the countries of report. In 2021 this group was around 30% of the total, both in Spain and globally. 

Finally, 11% of Spaniards say they have high confidence in the news but little interest in current affairs, five percentage points less than in the rest of the countries.