Media Study sees news deprivation as a threat to Swiss democracy
Fewer and fewer people in Switzerland are obtaining information from journalistic media: the proportion of these so-called news deprived people has almost doubled since 2009. Researchers at the University of Zurich see this as a fundamental problem for democracy.
27.10.2025, 10:15
SDA
The proportion has increased by 0.7 percentage points since the previous year, according to the "Yearbook Quality of the Media" published by the Research Center for the Public Sphere and Society (Fög) at the University of Zurich. According to the study, 46.4 percent of the Swiss population are among the news-deprived.
According to the study, compared to the rest of the population, they have a significantly lower level of knowledge about topics relevant to democracy. They also trust politics and the media less, participate less in the political process and feel less connected to society.
As part of the study published on Monday, the Fög also investigated the data basis used by AI chatbots. It came to the conclusion that at least two thirds of the sources identified came from journalistic media.
