News Avoidance and Media Trust: Exploring Intentional Public Disengagement in Egypt’s Media System

This study examines news avoidance behaviors in Egypt’s media system, addressing a significant gap in understanding how audiences disengage from news content in non-Western contexts. Using a mixed-methods approach combining focus groups (n = 16), surveys (n = 512), and expert interviews (n = 4), we investigate the relationships between news overload, trust in formal media, and selective attention in shaping news avoidance behaviors. Our structural equation model demonstrates strong explanatory power (R2 = 0.505), with news overload emerging as the strongest predictor of avoidance behaviors (β = 0.481). Trust in formal media (β = −0.265) and selective attention (β = −0.184) show significant negative relationships with news avoidance. Qualitative findings reveal how Egypt’s media system creates unique conditions for news avoidance, with audiences developing sophisticated strategies for managing information flow within an environment of state control. The study advances the theoretical understanding of news avoidance by demonstrating how Media Saturation Theory operates within authoritarian contexts while providing practical insights for news organizations operating under state control. Our findings suggest that news avoidance in authoritarian systems represents not simply audience disengagement but rather a complex adaptation to specific institutional and social conditions.