The Press Ombudsman has said 2020 was a good year for Irish media as print and broadcasting rose to the challenge of broadcasting through pandemic.
However, Peter Feeney said there was a huge contrast with coverage online, where he said there was a huge amount of misreporting and inaccurate information.
Speaking to RTÉ's Morning Ireland, Mr Feeney said what people got online essentially was "pub talk" and although social media companies took significant measures to address it, he said it is very hard to address given the sheer volume of information online.
Mr Feeney said that social media had been a huge gain for the public in general, but that it also "carries harm" and can be an aggressive environment.
Mr Feeney said getting that balance right is not easy to achieve and the new Media Authority of Ireland will face that job in the coming years.
He said that the Authority will have a role in regulating social media.
Although it is impossible to moderate social media before it goes up, he said, a proper regime can be put in place to ensure that social media companies can quickly take down mis-information when their attention is drawn to it.
Mr Feeney said it will be a classic 'David and Goliath' task.
He said that media literacy will play an important role in the way users deal with social media, and that there has been a big push towards increasing media literacy in Ireland recently.
The latest report from the Ombudsman reveals the 347 complaints were made against outlets last year, up from 2019.
Mr Feeney said there were two categories of complaints relating to covid coverage: people who were unhappy with newspaper reportage, and felt that those who were opposed to vaccines and the public health programme did not get fair coverage, and those who were concerned about privacy issues.
However, he pointed out, just one covid complaint was upheld, which suggests that the newspaper coverage was accurate and correct.
