Report. Concerns for privacy is an explanation for the growth in ad-blocking software according to a new report from Reuters Institute. It also looks at how we get our news.
Almost one third (31%) of all the people questioned in the survey use ad-blockers on their computer and more than a quarter (27%) use ad-blocks on any device, according to the Digital News Report 2018, which has investigated the news consumption in 37 countries based on surveys from more than 74,000 people.
The report states that concerns for privacy is an explanation for the growth in ad-blocking software.
Citizens from Greece, France, Poland, Germany and Turkey are the most frequent users of adblocker, and when looking to the Nordics, Danes use ad-blockers a little more (26%) compared to Norway (24%) and Finland (25%), only surpassed by Sweden (32%).
The report also looks at how we get our news – whether form online sources, television or print, where online of course dominates. And how our willingness to pay for online news has increased or not. Danes, for example, are less likely to pay for online news. Where there has been an increase in paying for online news in Norway (+4), Sweden (+6) and Finland (+4), no change has happened in Denmark. “Payment for online news has stagnated at 15% since 2017, placing Denmark at 14th out of 37 countries.”
Signe Agerskov is a member of the European Group on Blockchain Ethics (EGBE) and is researching blockchain ethics at the European Blockchain Center
