EDITORIAL | Trust in news is falling ― what can be done about it?

The Reuters Institute’s Digital News Report 2026 contains plenty of material for media executives to celebrate.

News creators are gaining audiences, artificial intelligence is being adopted in newsrooms and new digital publications are emerging. Competition authorities are forcing technology giants to contribute more to the sustainability of journalism.

But buried beneath those developments is a finding that should trouble every editor, publisher and journalist in South Africa: trust in news is falling.

According to the report, trust in news in South Africa has dropped from 61% in 2022 to 50% in 2026. While South Africa remains above the global average, the country has slipped from being the second-most trusting news market in the world to ninth place.

That is not a statistic to gloss over. It is a warning. The relationship between journalists and the public is arguably the most important asset the industry possesses.

News organisations can survive shrinking print circulations. They can adapt to digital disruption. They can even navigate the arrival of artificial intelligence. But if they lose the confidence of their audiences, the foundations of journalism itself begin to weaken.

The report arrives at a particularly uncomfortable moment for South African media.

For more than a decade, newsrooms have been caught in a cycle of retrenchments, budget cuts and declining resources. Specialist reporting has been hollowed out. Experienced journalists have left the profession and remaining reporters are expected to produce more stories, for more platforms, in less time.

The consequences are becoming increasingly visible. Many journalists today cover multiple beats simultaneously. Political reporting often becomes reactive rather than investigative. News cycles move at breakneck speed and social media rewards outrage and immediacy rather than depth and context.

Readers notice. The decline in trust reflected in the Reuters report may not simply be a product of global trends. It may also reflect a growing perception among audiences that journalism is becoming less connected to their daily realities and less capable of holding power to account.

This is why the report’s findings about the rise of creators and influencers should not automatically be interpreted as good news for journalism.

Across the world, and increasingly in South Africa, audiences are turning to individual personalities for news and analysis. Some of these creators produce valuable public-interest content, but others do not.

Their growth raises an uncomfortable question: are people embracing creators because they prefer a different format, or because they no longer trust traditional media institutions?

Once trust begins to erode, that entire system becomes more fragile.

The answer is likely a combination of both.

The danger lies in celebrating audience migration without understanding what it signifies. If readers are abandoning established news brands because they perceive them as distant, elitist or untrustworthy, then the success of creators is not evidence of a healthier information ecosystem. It is evidence of journalism losing ground. That should concern everyone.

A functioning democracy depends on trusted institutions capable of producing verified information. It depends on journalists who can investigate corruption, scrutinise government decisions and challenge powerful interests. It depends on audiences believing that facts matter.

Once trust begins to erode, that entire system becomes more fragile.

The report itself highlights another reason for concern: the growing influence of disinformation and foreign propaganda campaigns. South Africa has already experienced attempts by foreign actors to manipulate public debate through local media channels and digital platforms.

A public that distrusts journalism becomes easier to manipulate. Citizens who lose confidence in credible reporting often do not become better informed. Instead, they become vulnerable to misinformation, conspiracy theories and political narratives designed to exploit existing grievances.

Trust, once lost, is extraordinarily difficult to rebuild.

The irony is that South African journalism remains among the most robust on the continent. Investigative units continue to expose corruption and courts still rely heavily on media reporting to bring matters into the public domain. Major news organisations continue to break stories that shape national debates.

Yet those achievements alone are no longer sufficient.

The Reuters report suggests that journalism’s greatest challenge is not technological disruption but legitimacy. The question facing the industry is no longer simply how to attract audiences, it is how to convince those audiences that journalism deserves their trust.

That will require more than AI strategies, social media innovation or new business models. It will require journalism to reconnect with readers, demonstrate its value more clearly and show that it remains committed to serving the public rather than merely chasing attention.

The industry’s future may depend on it.