Richard Fletcher
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richardfletcher.bsky.social
Richard Fletcher
@richardfletcher.bsky.social

Director of Research at the Reuters Institute for the Study of Journalism, University of Oxford. Lead researcher + co-author of the Digital News Report. www.richardfletcher.me

Communication & Media Studies 27%
History 17%
Unbelievably, #DuvetKnowItsChristmas generates such good will on social media that over the years we've raised somewhere approaching a quarter of a million quid for homeless charities. If you can spare a bob or two, sling some to Centrepoint, and here's the link: www.gofundme.com/f/duvet-know...
Donate to Duvet Know It's Christmas, 2025, organized by Rhodri Marsden
Unbelievably, it's the 15th year of this thing. What is it? Improbably, the nig… Rhodri Marsden needs your support for Duvet Know It's Christmas, 2025
www.gofundme.com
This is the 15th year of #DuvetKnowItsChristmas, which is preposterous. Rules: if you find yourself dealing with unusual / claustrophobic / gaudy sleeping arrangements this Christmas Eve, share a picture with the world. Use the hashtag (with capitalisation) and cc me if you can be bothered.
My Nieman Lab prediction for 2026: The AI bubble may pop but people’s use of AI for information won’t and it's better if we start taking this seriously.

Reposted by Richard Fletcher

Can chatting with AI sway your political beliefs?

A new joint study from the Oxford Internet Institute and AI Security Institute (AISI) offers unprecedented insights into how conversational AI can exert influence over people’s political beliefs.

Read more: www.oii.ox.ac.uk/news-events/...

Reposted by Richard Fletcher

New OCJN report with @mitalilive.bsky.social & @richardfletcher.bsky.social out today tracking climate news consumption across 🇧🇷 🇫🇷 🇩🇪 🇮🇳 🇯🇵 🇵🇰 🇬🇧 🇺🇸.

Last year we found a y-o-y decline in climate news use only in 🇺🇸. Worryingly, it’s now spread to 5/8 countries.

What’s going on? A thread 🧵

Reposted by Richard Fletcher

1️⃣ The use of climate news is in decline in France, Germany, Japan, the UK, and the US.

It is stable in Brazil, India, and Pakistan. Declines in climate news use are driven by two overlapping trends: reduced climate news access via TV, and reduced use by people over 45.

Reposted by Richard Fletcher

Our new report out today by @waqasejaz.bsky.social, @mitalilive.bsky.social and @richardfletcher.bsky.social looks at how audiences in 🇧🇷 🇫🇷 🇩🇪 🇮🇳 🇯🇵 🇵🇰 🇬🇧 🇺🇸 consume news and information about climate change.

💻 Report: reutersinstitute.politics.ox.ac.uk/climate-chan...
🧵 Some key findings below.

Reposted by Richard Fletcher

We found that a clear majority of journalists (62%) think that AI represents a large or very large threat to journalism, whereas only a small minority (15%) say it’s a large or very large opportunity. www.niemanlab.org/2025/12/jour...
Journalists may see AI as a threat to the industry, but they’re using it anyway
Although AI use is now widespread among U.K. journalists, they still see it as much more of a threat than an opportunity.
www.niemanlab.org

We have a new @reutersinstitute.bsky.social report based on a survey of how journalists use AI.

Most journalists are now using AI in their work, but they’re pretty pessimistic about what it means for journalism.

Details in the post below.
We just published a new report on how UK journalists are adopting AI in their work
Authored by @neilthurman.bsky.social @sinatk.bsky.social & @richardfletcher.bsky.social, it's based on a survey conducted in 2024

Read in full
reutersinstitute.politics.ox.ac.uk/ai-adoption-...
10 findings in thread
We just published a new report on how UK journalists are adopting AI in their work
Authored by @neilthurman.bsky.social @sinatk.bsky.social & @richardfletcher.bsky.social, it's based on a survey conducted in 2024

Read in full
reutersinstitute.politics.ox.ac.uk/ai-adoption-...
10 findings in thread

Reposted by Richard Fletcher

Gulf between AI journalism hype and concerns at the coalface revealed: Far from freeing journalists from 'churnalism' AI could be enabling it, survey suggests pressgazette.co.uk/news/gulf-be...
Gulf between AI journalism hype and concerns at the coalface revealed
AI does not appear to have freed journalist's from mundane tasks as promised.
pressgazette.co.uk
300 cyclists were stopped for riding without lights in the dark and were given temporary lights to get them home safely, as part of Oxfordshire County Council's (OCC) Vision Zero event on Broad St. at the weekend. The event aimed to provide road safety advice for the most vulnerable road users.

Reposted by Richard Fletcher

NEW on our website

@rasmuskleis.bsky.social chaired a commission tasked by the Danish gov to design a system of direct media subsidies. In this piece he explains how they conceived their proposal and what other countries could learn from it
reutersinstitute.politics.ox.ac.uk/news/taxes-n...
From taxes to news: How Denmark is rethinking public funding for private publishers
The Nordic country is creating a model to decide which outlets should receive subsidies, how and on what basis. Rasmus Nielsen explains how it could work.
reutersinstitute.politics.ox.ac.uk
As the BBC faces fresh scrutiny, what does our research say about it?

Here's an updated version of a piece by @rasmuskleis.bsky.social @annisch.bsky.social @richardfletcher.bsky.social and Craig T. Robertson originally published in 2020

📱 Full piece here buff.ly/iLaMzHa
🧵 4 findings in thread
New Paper Alert 🧵📣

There is a growing concern that the negative valence in climate stories paralyses consumers & perhaps even prevents them from taking pro-environmental actions.

However, we found that climate anxiety is a robust and universal driver of pro-climate behavioral intentions.👇
What if people appreciate having an abundance of content and communication, more than they feel overloaded by it?

@annisch.bsky.social et al decided to have a look. Their results? "We found that appreciation for abundance was about twice as common as overload".

Paper: journalqd.org/article/view...

Reposted by Richard Fletcher

Did you miss the launch event of our report on news creators and influencers?

Here's a summary by our own Gretel Kahn, which includes four takeaways and many insights from our speakers Emilio Doménech, Akash Banerjee and Mosheh Oinounou
reutersinstitute.politics.ox.ac.uk/news/summary...
‘Building a very different kind of trust’: Four things we learnt at the launch of our report on news creators
More than 1,600 people signed up for our event, featuring Mosheh Oinounou from the US, Akash Banerjee from India and Emilio Doménech from Spain.
reutersinstitute.politics.ox.ac.uk
“There is a set of populous countries, generally where traditional media are under pressure and social media use is high, where news creators are having a significant impact"

@hanaatameez.bsky.social wrote up a fascinating @reutersinstitute.bsky.social report www.niemanlab.org/2025/10/news...

Our new report on news influencers and creators is out.

It contains:

- 5 key findings (see link)
- Top 15 most mentioned news influencers and creators by survey respondents in 24 countries
- A typology of different content types (and examples of individuals that primarily produce each)
We've just published the most comprehensive study of news creators to date covering 24 countries. Authored by Nic Newman @amyrossarguedas.bsky.social @mitalilive.bsky.social @richardfletcher.bsky.social, it identifies the most mentioned in each country

📱Report buff.ly/bL6y8Hj
🧵6 findings in thread
We've just published the most comprehensive study of news creators to date covering 24 countries. Authored by Nic Newman @amyrossarguedas.bsky.social @mitalilive.bsky.social @richardfletcher.bsky.social, it identifies the most mentioned in each country

📱Report buff.ly/bL6y8Hj
🧵6 findings in thread
📢 It's out: The new @worldsofjournalism.bsky.social report

➡️rich data from 3rd wave of WJS study
➡️ survey of more than 32,350 journalists across 75 countries
➡️ perspectives from diverse media systems, political regimes, and cultural contexts

Free download
www.worldsofjournalism.org/reports-wjs3/

Reposted by Richard Fletcher

The results of the ICA Elections are in! 🎉 Congratulations to all newly elected individuals! A huge thank-you to all candidates and voters who participated—your engagement and support strengthen our community. 🔗 buff.ly/EVrbDcR

Clicking through to links from AI search results is more common among those that trust the responses.

This could suggest that people are using links to find more information rather than check whether AI is accurate - but hard to be sure and probably varies case by case.

Trust in gen AI search responses is relatively high. 50% on average say they typically trust them, compared to 20% who typically distrust.

This is higher than trust in individual chatbots, but mostly because it is more widely used.

Again, younger people have slightly higher trust.

Only about one third of people say that they always or often click the links to the underlying source that was used to generate the answer - though survey data has limitations here.

As with many behaviours around gen AI, younger people are slightly more likely to say they click through.

There are differences by country, reflecting for example the fact that different platforms in different countries have enabled or disabled AI results for particular types of query (most news queries on Google do not produce AI responses, for example).

Following last week's thread on using gen AI for news, this one looks at our research on AI search results based on data from 🇦🇷🇩🇰🇫🇷🇯🇵🇬🇧🇺🇸.

It's already true that most people (54%) say that they have seen AI search results in the last week.

It's more common than the use of all chatbots combined (34%).
🚨 out at @apsrjournal.bsky.social 🚨

➡️ We ran a large media literacy experiment to fight misinformation
➡️ 13,500 students, 583 villages in Bihar, India
➡️Created custom misinfo curriculum of 4 months
➡️Partnered w the government to roll it out as an official course in classrooms

hopeful findings👇🏽

For younger people gen AI offers a very different news experience. Fews are using it for news right now, but it could grow in the coming years.

Full @reutersinstitute.bsky.social report by @felixsimon.bsky.social @rasmuskleis.bsky.social and me.

reutersinstitute.politics.ox.ac.uk/generative-a...
Generative AI and news report 2025: How people think about AI’s role in journalism and society
Our survey explores how people use generative AI in their everyday lives, what they think its impact will be on different areas of society, and what they think about its use in news and journalism spe...
reutersinstitute.politics.ox.ac.uk