The second half of the 2010s have become a watershed moment for news. The combination of the manipulation of social platforms by political agents, the growing effect of consumers’ personal filter bubbles and the quasi-legitimisation of unscrupulous news outlets have undermined audience trust across the whole political spectrum. Trust has never been at a lower ebb, to the extent that even those news outlets that seek to productise objectivity are simply seen as part of the trust problem by readers on another end of the political divide. News is caught in a prolonged process of existential crisis, unsure whether the future holds a return to long-held values or instead a dystopian crisis of perpetual polarisation, mistrust and audience manipulation.

Companies and brands mentioned in this report:  Amazon, Amazon Prime Video, Apple, The BBC, Cambridge Analytica, CNN, Deezer, The Economist, The European Union, Facebook, The Financial Times, Fox News, The Gateway Pundit, Google, Infowars, Netflix, News+, The New York Times, Spotify