Online media outstrips TV as source of news for the first time in the UK
- Reference: 1726043470
- News link: https://www.theregister.co.uk/2024/09/11/online_media_outstrips_tv_news_source/
- Source link:
The telecoms and media regulator has found that online news sources are now more widely used than TV news, whose viewership saw a steep decline last year.
However, for now the popularity of TV news remains only slightly behind its online usurper. Ofcom's research involved more than a thousand interviews and found 71 percent of adults access news online, compared to 70 percent for TV, marking a generational shift in the balance of news media.
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For 16- to 24-year-olds the difference was more marked, as 88 percent would find their news online, and just half said they'd seek out TV news to find out about current events. Despite this trend towards online news sources, TV remains by far the leading platform for news among people over 55 years old, at 85 percent.
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The UK's publicly funded broadcaster, the BBC, remains the most popular news source. Its BBC One channel is the most popular single source of news, with 43 percent of individuals using it, while the BBC iPlayer streaming service is the fourth most popular source, with 23 percent.
However, social media platforms were proving influential. Facebook came third, and it is used by 30 percent of audiences.
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Despite other social media platforms such as YouTube, Instagram and X (formerly Twitter) becoming significant channels for news, TV also remains more trusted than its online rivals.
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Ofcom found that most of the respondents said they had encountered misleading content during the recent UK General Election. According to the survey, 60 percent of those asked recalled having seen information they felt was false or misleading, while one in ten of this group said they saw this kind of content several times a day.
Fifty-seven percent of people were worried about the impact of deepfake content during the General Election campaign, and 27 percent of adults said they had seen a deepfake the previous week.
Yih-Choung Teh, Ofcom group director, strategy and research, said: "Television has dominated people's news habits since the sixties, and it still commands really high trust. But we're witnessing a generational shift to online news, which is often seen as less reliable - together with growing fears about misinformation and deepfake content. Ofcom wants to secure high-quality news for the next generation, so we're kicking off a review of the public service media that help underpin the UK's democracy and public debate." ®
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[6] https://www.theregister.com/2024/04/19/kids_electronics_report/
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Re: "TV remains more trusted news source"
During COVID, the BBC regularly let MP after MP on talking absolute bullshido without even questioning it. The only person at the time who was taking the MPs to task was - and believe me I feel dirty for this - Piers Morgan. It got to the point the government wouldn't let their MPs appear on GMB because of it.
Even in the last election, all the coverage on election night was about Reform. They did nothing. The Greens and Independents won more (the Greens especially had higher gains) but you couldn't move for every Reform bootlicker appearing on the BBC talking about how they were going to win 15 seats.
And then there are the (surprising) movement of former Tory party donors and party members who end up in high positions of power within the BBC. Again, plenty of reports regarding the links political commentators or news controllers have with various parties.
That's not to say that online sources are any truer, but generally speaking you get to hear more of the news and the nuances about a story than you do on the TV.
"TV remains more trusted news source"
"War is peace"
and so on...
Legacy media are owned by investment funds and their interest is ensuring the other investments they have turn profit.
This means there is an agenda. Certain topics cannot be talked about and other have to be framed in the way to not harm investments.
Then they cannot cross the government, which has many instruments to ensure only the "right" message is coming through.
If you learn about propaganda techniques, watching TV can be fun, when you start seeing patterns of disinformation and manipulation.
It's the source, of course.
> most of the respondents said they had encountered misleading content during the recent UK General Election
Though wouldn't that have come from the various parties running in the election?
While you would hope the news services would weed out the fake, false and misleading content they are presented with, most seem happy to repeat verbatim everything they are told.
If you want the truth...
... probably best to give up now.
The ongoing fight for eyeballs, and the dominance of data in the media has meant that most outlets and commentators are tuning their output for attention, not some value of "truth". That largely means telling your audience what they want to hear, or causing some sort of strong emotional response (of the "they're eating our cats!" variety).
The reporting of the recent presidential debate is a case in point. Those searching for news are being fed wildly asymmetrical views of how the debate went, and a huge number of online users are spending their time trying to find (and share) the report that fits their views. A rational external view is that the "attention filter" is denying a significant portion of the population any fair analysis of the candidates and their campaign. That not only helps a weak candidate, but also fails to challenge a stronger candidate to fine tune their policies. We're seeing the results across most of the West, with significantly weaker political parties, much higher distrust and ineffective governments.
Unfortunately, for many people, the knee jerk reaction is to hunt for the media bubble that is "more truthy" rather than recognise that being fed a better flavour of slop is still eating slop.
"TV remains more trusted news source"
Nope. Not any more. TV news is just the official government source.
If you want the truth, nowadays, you have to look for it, and the only place to look is now the Internet.
I'm not happy about that, but one must never forget that "news" is presented on stations that belong to some billionaire or another, and those guys have multiple agendas, none of which include telling you the truth.