Smartphones and Apps Take Over as a Primary News Source

Study conducted by the Reuters Institute for the Study of Journalism (RISJ) found increasing dependence on smartphones as a means of consuming news content. According to the research, the majority of people are selecting social networking apps as their primary source.

In its Digital News Report 2020, RISJ stated that the coronavirus crisis has substantially increased news consumption for mainstream media in all of the countries where they have conducted surveys before and after the pandemic had taken effect. Television news and online sources have seen significant upticks, and more people identify television as their main source of news, providing temporary respite from a picture of steady decline. Consumption of printed newspapers has fallen as lockdowns undermine physical distribution, accelerating the shift to an all-digital future.

At the same time, the use of online and social media substantially increased in most countries. WhatsApp saw the biggest growth in general with increases of around ten percentage points in some countries, while more than half of surveyed (51%) used some kind of open or closed online group to connect, share information, or take part in a local support network.

As of April 2020, trust in the media’s coverage of COVID-19 was relatively high in all countries, at a similar level to national governments and significantly higher than for individual politicians. Media trust was more than twice the level for social networks, video platforms, or messaging services when it came to information about COVID-19.

Global concerns about misinformation remain high. Even before the coronavirus crisis hit, more than half of respondents said they were concerned about what is true or false on the internet when it comes to news. Politicians are the most frequently named source of misinformation, though in some countries people who self-identify as right-wing are more likely to blame the media. Facebook is seen as the main channel for spreading false information almost everywhere but WhatsApp is seen as more responsible in countries such as Brazil and Malaysia.

Over the last nine years, online news has been overtaking television as the most frequently used source of news in many of the countries covered by our online survey. At the same time, printed newspapers have continued to decline while social media have levelled off after a sharp rise. The coronavirus crisis has significantly, though almost certainly temporarily, changed that picture. Television news has seen an uplift in all six countries where RISJ conducted the study.

Weekly TV news consumption rose by an average of five percentage points across all six countries. But the social media were also substantially up (+5) as more people used these networks for finding and sharing news in combination with television and online sites. By contrast, the lockdowns hit the reach of print newspapers and magazines with a six-point drop in Spain, not helped by difficulties in distributing physical copies.