Understanding News Avoidance in Social Media: A Systematic Literature Review

RELIGION AND SOCIAL COMMUNICATION VOLUME 23, NO. 2 (JULY - DECEMBER 2025)

ISSN 3057-0883 (ONLINE)

Author

Annapurna Sharma* and Mahesh Kumar Meena**

* Central University of Punjab, India

** Central University of Punjab, India

Abstract

In the age of digital media, news avoidance behaviour is continually increasing. This behaviour has brought new challenges for society and democracy. Research on news avoidance has recently experienced a surge, particularly in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic. However, there are many uncertainties on this topic, and this systematic literature review attempts to resolve them. This research uses the PRISMA framework to answer the research questions. Two databases are used for this study: Web of Science and Scopus. The study uses the inclusion criteria of research papers published in English and the exclusion criteria of review papers. The research study is based on a quantitative and qualitative analysis of 23 selected articles from both databases. Quantitative results show a sudden increase in the number of news avoidance studies in 2023. The analysis also revealed a dominance of quantitative methods and non-probability samples. The regional distribution of the studies underlines the concentration of research in Europe and North America. The qualitative analysis highlights the causes of news avoidance, the profile of news avoiders, the connection between news avoidance and news overload, social media and engagement, the disadvantages of avoidance, and solutions to avoidance. The study concludes that trust in news, interest in news, enjoyment of news consumption, news curation and constructive news provide a solution to news avoidance behaviour.

Keywords

news avoidance, digital media, social media, democracy, PRISMA

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Pages 375-398

DOI: https://doi.org/10.62461/ASMM050325

Submitted: Mar. 17, 2025; Accepted: May 03, 2025; Published: Jul. 1, 2025

© 2025 The authors. This is an open access article under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/).