Results of our studies

IN BRIEF

Mass media audience keeps drifting towards internet. 

MOSCOW, August 7, 2017. The Russian Public Opinion Research Center (VCIOM) presents the results of a survey describing the sources of information Russians use.

As before, most of Russians get information from television; however Internet is expanding its audience and approaching television. Today more than two-thirds of Russians (69%) almost always get news and information from the central television (a decrease from 78% in 2012); a further 44% prefer regional television (from 52%). But its high degree of popularity is mainly due to older audiences: federal channels are chosen by 87% of those aged 60+ and only 48% of the 18-24-year-olds.

Online resources (websites) are almost overlapping regional television even across sample in general (46%); they are the predominant source of information used by those aged 18-24 and 25-34 (82% and 59, respectively). Social media and blogging results are close to online media: 41% of all respondents opt for them to learn the necessary information (81% of the youngest audience).

Press and radio give way to television and the world wide web: federal print media are regularly used by 25% of Russians, and regional print media - 22% (these values do not differ much from the values obtained five years ago; print media are mainly popular among persons aged 45 and over); central radio stations are popular among 20%, local radio – among 15% (compared to 2012 there has not been any strong dynamics).

As five years ago, foreign media are ranked lowest: the recent survey shows that only 9% of Russians read foreign media (14% of the 18-24-year-olds and residents of cities except for Moscow and St Petersburg (for each group)), compared with 6% in 2012.

The VCIOM-Sputnik Russian nationwide survey was conducted on July 20-24, 2017 in 130 settlements, 46 oblasts, krais and republics and 8 federal districts of Russia, with a sample of 1600 persons representative of the Russian population aged 18 and over according to sex, age, education, type of settlement. The survey was conducted with multi-stage stratified sample based on general rule of walking and quotas at the final selection stage.  The margin of error (taking into account the design effect) with 95% confidence interval does not exceed 3.5%. The survey method is community-based structured face-to-face interviews. In addition to sampling error, minor changes in question wording and different circumstances arising during the fieldwork can introduce bias into the survey.

How often do you use the following media to get information? (closed-ended question, one answer per line, %)

 

 

Often

Rarely

Never

Don’t know

Central television

2017

69

22

9

0

2016

71

23

5

1

2012

78

20

1

1

Internet – news, analytical, official websites

2017

46

19

33

2

2016

40

24

34

2

Regional, local television

2017

44

36

20

0

2016

40

40

19

1

2012

52

36

10

2

Internet – social media and blogs

2017

41

21

36

2

2016

37

22

40

1

Central press

2017

25

34

40

1

2016

20

36

43

1

2012

27

43

28

2

Regional, local press

2017

22

35

41

2

2016

17

38

45

0

2012

26

42

30

2

Central radio

2017

20

26

52

2

2016

18

27

53

2

2012

23

30

44

3

Regional, local radio

2017

15

25

57

3

2016

13

28

56

3

2012

16

29

51

4

Foreign media

2017

9

23

66

2

2016

5

21

70

4

2012

6

20

68

6

How often do you use the following media to get information?

(closed-ended question, one answer, %)

2017

Total respondents

Aged 18-24

Aged 25-34

Aged 35-44

Aged 45-59

Aged 60 and over

Central television

Often

69

48

56

67

76

87

Rarely

22

38

32

20

17

10

Never

9

14

12

11

7

2

Don’t know

0

0

0

2

0

1

Regional, local television

Often

44

30

37

39

46

57

Rarely

36

45

41

37

35

25

Never

20

25

20

22

18

17

Don’t know

0

0

2

2

1

1

Central press

Often

25

17

16

22

29

34

Rarely

34

41

42

39

33

20

Never

40

41

38

39

37

44

Don’t know

1

1

4

0

1

2

Regional, local press

Often

22

14

17

17

26

32

Rarely

35

40

40

35

36

25

Never

41

45

40

46

38

41

Don’t know

2

1

3

2

0

2

Central radio

Often

20

16

19

20

21

22

Rarely

26

39

34

28

23

12

Never

52

43

46

50

54

63

Don’t know

2

2

1

2

2

3

Regional, local radio

Often

15

12

16

17

15

17

Rarely

25

41

31

26

24

13

Never

57

46

51

56

59

67

Don’t know

3

1

2

1

2

3

Foreign media

Often

9

14

7

7

9

9

Rarely

23

38

31

26

20

10

Never

66

47

60

65

69

79

Don’t know

2

1

2

2

2

2

Internet – news, analytical, official websites

Often

46

82

59

56

38

15

Rarely

19

12

22

22

23

12

Never

33

5

17

21

37

70

Don’t know

2

1

2

1

2

3

Internet – social media and blogs

Often

41

81

57

51

29

12

Rarely

21

15

25

25

26

10

Never

36

4

16

23

43

74

Don’t know

2

0

2

1

2

4 


Note:
Using materials from the site www.wciom.ru or wciom.com, as well as distributed by VCIOM, the reference to the source (or hyperlink for the electronic media) is obligatory!

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