This report showcases the findings from research conducted for the Future News Pilot Fund.
In this report, we explore the news, media and journalism landscape using multiple datasets. We find:
- Journalism-related employment in the UK is very geographically concentrated. Despite a notable decline in the past decade, newspaper publishing remains the largest employer in the sector (in absolute numbers).
- News and Journalism make up a small fraction of nonprofit activity in the UK (less than 1 per cent), and although projects and initiatives are spread throughout the UK, London remains a hub of activity.
- Academic research on misinformation and disinformation has grown in both scale and scope since 2016 when the focus shifted from medicine towards politics, internet privacy, and fake news.
- A small but growing number of public interest news companies are adopting emerging technologies such as AI and blockchain.
- Relative to other countries, the UK is under-specialised in ‘inclusive news’ (news relating to underserved or marginalised groups).
- Our analysis showed gaps in the data. More work is needed to collect and make available robust data on the news, media and journalism landscape within the UK.
- More research is needed to understand what these trends mean for democracy and for the strength of institutions.
You can explore these findings in more detail in our online data visualisation.
