A global report that examines media consumption across 38 countries has found that trust in the media is on the slide, and that Australians have the highest level of concern globally about fake news.

The Digital News Report 2019 is co-ordinated by the Reuters Institute for the Study of Journalism at Oxford University and the Australian report is produced by the News & Media Research Centre at the University of Canberra.

The report's project lead, Professor Caroline Fisher, told The World Today that concern about fake news was highly dependent on demographics, which was cause for concern.

More than a third of those surveyed said they'd fact checked news articles against other sources, but Australians were less likely to do so than those in other countries.