Why America Turned Off the News in 2021

If there’s one thing 2021 showed, it’s that many people chose to detox from the mainstream media. Especially after the incendiary year that was 2020, from the pandemic to the election. Weekday consumption of network news is down across the board with almost all broadcast news program viewership down 10 – 15%. The New York Times website reported its number of unique visitors is down some 34%. The Washington Post reported a drop of 44% – almost HALF.
14 million political articles in 2020 reported an average of 924 engagements on social media. About that same amount of articles in 2021 found roughly only 321 engagements. That’s a big difference. Clearly if nothing else, the media landscape is changing.
We know firsthand that radio numbers have declined, partly to do with less people commuting for work. Yet podcast numbers are spiking. That may be because podcasts can be consumed on the listener’s time. Or it may be that audiences have lost trust in the mainstream talking heads.
The question is, how are people consuming their news media now? With new media alternatives popping up all the time such as Facebook, YouTube, and Rumble, do these declining numbers mean it’s becoming less relevant to have your content carried by the major media outlets? Or are people just tired of it? Has the news become so detrimental to everyone’s emotional and mental state that people are just tuning out?
By no means would I want to bash the media as a whole, as we are very much part of it. But there has been a palpable sense of distrust towards both sides of the media. Even The Weather Channel, which one would think might remain ubiquitous, and politically agnostic, has become politicized.
And it’s not even necessarily about if liberal media outlets or conservative media outlets are doing better or worse – they’re all down. That would seem to indicate people are over it. They want facts. They want weather. They don’t want to be preached to, or talked down to, or called something they’re not.