Lisbon, June 16, 2026 (Lusa) - Portugal ranks among the countries where trust in journalism is highest, but there is a “very worrying” trend of people avoiding the news, particularly among young people and women, OberCom researcher Ana Pinto Martinho told Lusa.
These are some of the findings of the Digital News Report Portugal 2026 (DNRPT26) released on Tuesday, the 12th annual report produced by OberCom – the Communication Observatory – in partnership with the Reuters Institute for the Study of Journalism at the University of Oxford.
“Portugal is indeed among the countries where there is the greatest trust in journalism, but there is a very worrying trend here, which is the issue of people turning away from the news,” says the researcher, alongside a concern about disinformation, which has reached its highest figure in recent years.
In 2026, 51% of Portuguese people say they trust the news in general, a figure significantly higher than the global average of 37%. In 2015, 66% of Portuguese people trusted the news.
Therefore, “Portugal remains one of the countries where trust in the news is highest; it is very interesting because we are on a par with the Nordic countries in Europe in terms of trust, but in effect there is a general downward trend in trust in the news,” she notes.
“What we know is that over all the years we’ve had the Digital News Report – that is, 11 years, since 2015 – what has happened is that trust has "fallen by 15 percentage points’,” she explained.
According to the study, "trust is also unevenly distributed across Portuguese society", as "the highest levels are found among older, better-educated citizens with higher incomes, whilst young people show substantially lower levels".
As for actively avoiding the news, which the researcher describes as “worrying”, this occurs “primarily among younger people and women”.
"It is higher among women," she adds, noting that "this disengagement seems to be less due to a lack of interest in current affairs, and more to information fatigue, saturation and burnout", that is, the sheer volume of information people are exposed to on a daily basis.
Between 2015 and 2018, around seven in ten Portuguese people reported an interest in the news. In 2026, that figure remains at 50%, whilst the number of people who actively avoid the news has increased.
Currently, 37% of Portuguese people say they avoid the news frequently or sometimes, compared with just 22% in 2017.
The researcher also highlights the fact that, in Portugal, “people are concerned about disinformation”, with “this concern reaching one of the highest levels”.
“I believe this is actually a positive thing”, because “it means they have a critical sense and are possibly trying to understand what is disinformation and what is not”, continues Ana Pinto Martinho.
The OberCom researcher points out that Portugal remains “one of the countries where people pay the least for news”, which also has an impact on the sector’s sustainability and the quality of journalism itself.
Meanwhile, “television also continues to carry a great deal of weight as the main source of news in Portugal; in fact, it is one of the countries where this is most prevalent. Just to give a very brief idea, 71% of Portuguese people used television to access news in the week prior to responding,” she emphasises.
“Social media within the online sphere now represents the main entry point for news, having already overtaken search engines and direct access via media outlets’ websites,” she notes.
As for artificial intelligence (AI) chatbots, these are already “entering the news sphere”, but without playing a significant role.
"Other interesting data also relates to the issue of digital creators" who are "gaining greater relevance among younger people", but there is no talk yet "of a replacement for journalism, but rather, I would say, a reorganisation of the entire information ecosystem, particularly among younger audiences", she notes.
“Perhaps it will be important” for the media “to start looking a little more closely at these younger audiences who are increasingly being drawn to digital creators,” suggests Ana Pinto Martinho.
The study, which includes data from 48 markets and over 97,000 respondents worldwide, paints a detailed picture of the news consumption habits of Portuguese internet users, with a representative national sample of 2,024 respondents.
The data was collected between 6 January and 20 February 2026.
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