Reuters Institute Digital News Report (Hong Kong)

The Reuters Institute Digital News Report is published annually by the Reuters Institute for the Study of Journalism (RISJ) at Oxford University, and it provides insights and analysis on people’s digital news consumption. The 2024 report, published in June, surveyed 95,000 people in 47 markets, representing half of the world’s population. The 2024 Hong Kong Report provides a more in-depth summary of the Hong Kong data across eight themes. Several of them are highlighted below

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Key findings

Most popular news brands

TVB News is the most visited offline and online news brand

The 2024 survey asked respondents about the specific news brands they consumed, covering 28 offline and 43 online brands. Among the five most popular offline media, TVB News remains the dominant player in Hong Kong’s offline market, followed by Headline Daily, RTHK, NowTV, and Oriental Daily news, ranked second to fifth, respectively.

In the online media market, TVB also holds a leading position as the most frequently used news brand, followed by HK01.com, Yahoo! news, headline daily online and Oriental Daily online. However, Oriental Daily online has a slightly higher proportion of users who access it more than three days per week compared to Headline Daily online.

News trust

General news trust substantially increased
In the 2024 survey, trust in news among Hong Kong people has increased substantially, with overall trust rising sharply from 38.9% to 55.2%, marking the highest level in the past five years. Trust scores for all news brands covered in the survey also registered increased from the previous year. However, digital news outlets remained relatively less trustworthy compared to conventional newspapers and broadcasters. Among the news organizations surveyed, NOW TV emerged as the most trusted news brand, with 70.2% of respondents expressing trust and only 8.5% expressing distrust. Both RTHK and Commercial Radio were trusted by 66.2% of respondents, though Commercial Radio had a higher net trust score than RTHK, at 56.9% compared to 52.2%. Toward the bottom of the table, several online-only news media outlets registered the lowest levels of trust of the brands in the survey, while Bastillepost had a trust rating of only 49.8%.

Ways to came across online news

Social media is the most popular gateway for news

It is important to note that across the Hong Kong market, social media (51.9%) is a more important gateway to news than direct access (45%). This means that slightly more than half of the respondents preferred to let the news ‘find’ them in the social media platform. Compare for all age groups, the 35-to-44 group was the most likely to come across news via social media while people in the youngest group (18- to 24-year-olds) were notably less likely to directly access to a news website or app but they were the most likely to use a search engine to look for a specific news website.K

Concern over fake news

Awareness and concern about fake news are increasing
In the 2024 survey, the proportion of Hongkongers who agreed that they were concerned about what is real and what is fake on the internet overall is up 17pp, from 45.1% to 62.1%. In contrast, the proportion of people who disagree with this statement remains roughly consistent with the past five years. Seniors have emerged as the demographic most concerned about fake news, about two thirds of respondents aged 55 or above agreed with the statement.