Uganda, Feb. 9 -- Trust in news media has been on the wane since the arrival of social media. The new media not only disrupted the way we tell stories and how we consume stories, it also changed who tells stories and who we believe or don't believe.

According to the Reuters Institute Digital Report of 2023, only 40 percent of the public across all markets in the world trust news media (online, print, and broadcast). The study also found that only 48 percent are interested in news (down from 63 percent in 2017), and 36 percent avoid news completely or restrict themselves to specific topics or times of exposure.

There are many reasons for this: the rise in fake news on social media (and sometimes in mainstream media), perceptions of mains...