The fractured lens: communicating public finances in the modern world

For the past decade, I have tracked a fundamental shift in how the world consumes information. Through the Reuters Institute Digital News Report, the world’s largest ongoing study of news consumption, we have witnessed the fracturing of the traditional information ecosystem. Ten years ago, we inhabited a world of shared facts and shared moments – think of commuters on a train all reading the same newspaper. Today, that world is gone. We have moved from a cohesive public sphere to a fragmented landscape of personal choices. For policymakers trying to communicate complex challenges like fiscal sustainability, this poses an existential question: how do you build public legitimacy when much of the public is no longer listening?

The most obvious change is the decline of traditional media. In countries like the UK and France, television news – once the primary engine of public information – has seen a significant drop in weekly reach. Online news sites and print media are following the same downward trajectory.

In their place, social media and video networks have become more important sources of news. In the US, social networks have now overtaken television as a news source for the first time. Today's growth is driven almost exclusively by video-led platforms like YouTube, Instagram, and TikTok. The era of the homepage is ending; the era of the feed is here.

This shift is not uniform; it is defined by a stark generational divide. Older audiences still cling to the media habits they grew up with, primarily television and print. They have grafted digital habits onto these traditional foundations.

Younger groups, however, are different. They are “social natives.” For around half of those under 25, social media is not just a supplement; it is their main source of news. They are more likely to open an app like TikTok or Instagram than to visit a news website directly. This split creates a dual reality: one demographic still watching the evening news, and another that never switches it on.

We often overlook the hardware driving this software change. A decade ago, news consumption was desktop-first. Today, the smartphone is the primary gateway to the world. This device has fundamentally disrupted formats. Long-form text simply does not work well on a small screen.

This constraint is pushing content towards vertical, short-form video and audio formats like podcasts. It has also helped to undermine traditional business models. Display advertising, which worked in print and to some extent on desktops, fails on mobile. This undermines the resources available for independent journalism just when we need it most.

Perhaps the most worrying trend for public finance communicators is the decline in interest. A decade ago, around 70% of people said they were interested in news. In the UK, that figure has crashed to 39%, according to the Reuters Institute 2025 Digital News Report survey.

Worse, active news avoidance is rising. Across our global sample, 40% of people say they sometimes or often avoid the news. They tell us it brings their mood down, feels relentlessly negative, or causes arguments they would rather avoid. Others, particularly the young, say the news is simply too hard to follow and understand.

This is compounded by a sense of overload. Publishers, desperate for attention, have responded by producing more content – more alerts, more stories, more noise. This is the opposite of what audiences want. They crave more signal and less noise.

Trust remains historically low. In the UK, trust in news has fallen from 51% to 35%¹. This is not necessarily because journalism has got worse, but because society has become more polarised. In a polarised environment, many people distrust media that challenges their worldview.

We also see rising anxiety about what is real. Nearly 60% of our surveyed respondents are worried about misinformation² - about being able to tell "what is true from what is false" on the internet when it comes to news.  This anxiety is being supercharged by AI. We used to be sceptical of text but trusted what we saw. With AI-generated images and video now flooding social feeds, even that baseline trust is eroding.

As institutions decline, individuals rise. We are seeing a boom in the “creator economy.” People increasingly prefer to get their news from personalities rather than faceless brands. In countries like Thailand, 56% of people³ access news via YouTube, often through individual creators.

These creators fall into four broad camps. First, political commentators, often partisan and populist, who thrive on conflict. Second, "infotainment" hosts who reach massive youth audiences that traditional media miss. Third, explanatory journalists who remix complex topics for TikTok and YouTube. And finally, niche specialists on platforms like Substack.

Politicians are adapting fast. They are bypassing critical journalists to speak directly to sympathetic influencers. This allows them to get their message across without scrutiny, further complicating the information environment.

Finally, the rules of the road are changing. The old model was simple: post a link on social media and drive traffic to your website. But the era of ‘mass referral’ is coming to an end. Platforms like Instagram and TikTok do not want users to leave. They prioritise native video content that keeps eyes on their app.

This means communicators must create bespoke content for each platform. You cannot just post a press release. To make matters worse, the rise of AI search – where chatbots answer questions directly – threatens to cut off traffic completely. Publishers and other institutions worry about a “zero-click” future where audiences get answers without ever visiting a primary source.

The implications for communicating public finance are profound. We face a public that is paying less attention, trusts institutions less, and is retreating into private, fragmented digital spaces.

However, this is not a counsel of despair. It is a call to adapt. We must meet audiences where they are, not where we want them to be. This means embracing new formats – video, audio, and explainers – that cut through the noise. It means engaging with the creator economy rather than ignoring it. And it means accepting that in an attention economy, facts alone are not enough. To be heard, we must be accessible, engaging, and above all, human.

This blog is part of a series of opinion pieces that highlight diverse perspectives on the need to restore public finances. Building public support for budget reforms has become a pressing need for OECD countries. This collection offers insights into some of the most promising  ongoing efforts to empower public understanding, featuring contributions  from thought leaders and practitioners in national governments, multilateral organisations, academia, and civil society.

A key reference in this discussion is the the OECD report “The People and the Budget: Empowering Public Understanding of Public Finances”, which offers practical guidance for governments on improving the communication of public finances, strengthening citizen engagement, and highlighting the vital role of independent bodies in an environment of high fiscal pressure and low trust.

References 1–3: Newman, N., et al. (2025). Reuters Institute Digital News Report 2025.

This blog article should not be reported as representing the official views of the OECD or of its Member countries. The opinions expressed and arguments employed are those of the authors.