Trust in online news trumps television, says new Ofcom media literacy survey
Findings of UK-wide study suggest greater confidence amongst radio listeners and internet users in their medium
– 1 min read
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More internet users trust online news websites than TV viewers trust TV news output, according to a new survey from Ofcom .
The UK Adults' Media Literacy survey, based on 1,824 in-depth interviews, suggests that 58 per cent of internet users trust news websites, while 54 per cent of TV viewers trust TV news. A greater proportion of radio listeners (66 per cent) trust radio news than either of the other media.
The survey is aimed at giving an overview of media literacy in UK adults over 16 years of age and follows previous studies conducted in 2005 and 2007 by Ofcom. Its findings suggest that around half of all adults consider information found on television (52 per cent) and radio (50 per cent) to be reliable and accurate, while 31 per cent of internet users feel the same about information online.
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"Since 2007, internet users are more likely to say they are very confident across a number of aspects of using the internet, and six in ten describe themselves as very confident internet users. It remains the case that users are less confident in judging whether a website is truthful than they are in searching online or creating content online," says the survey report.
When asked the reasons behind their use of particular media, most respondents said TV and radio were ways to relax and "keep up to date with the news". News was not cited amongst the most popular reasons for using the internet, which were "to find out or learn things, and for contact with other people".
The survey also looks at media consumption habits by age and gender. It suggests that males are also more likely than females to use the internet to keep up to date with news and that adults aged 65 and over are more likely than adults as a whole to regularly read newspapers or magazines.
Written by
Laura Oliver is a freelance journalist, a contributor to the Reuters Institute for the Study of Journalism, co-founder of The Society of Freelance Journalists and the former editor of Journalism.co.uk (prior to it becoming JournalismUK)
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