The spread of disinformation and conspiracy theories could increase if there are further cuts in print, online and broadcast media.
That is one of the concerns of the Press Ombudsman in his annual report published today.
It also shows there were 252 press complaints last year, down from an average of 350 over the last ten years, primarily over breaches of trust, accuracy and privacy.
Ombudsman Peter Feeney is worried that staff or cost reductions could affect democracy and the scrutiny of those in power.
He said: "If there is further slippage in the Irish media and more and more people get their information from social media, we are losing the ability to analyse ourselves, we are losing the ability to engage in conversation between ourselves.
"We are losing the ability to engage in conversations between ourselves and we are handing it over to multinationals which are virtually unregulated where there is a huge amount of disinformation."
The Press Ombudsman also said people's privacy has to be respected in online stories just as much as in print or broadcast content.
One of nine complaints upheld involved the use of photos taken from an Instagram account for use in an online article.
Ombudsman Peter Feeney said media outlets need to be just as careful when using social media content as part of a story.
