Reading news on social media and in mass media sources is the most popular reading activity among Russians.

MOSCOW, September 18, 2018. Russian Public Opinion Research Center (VCIOM) presents the data of a survey devoted to reading.

Russians tend to read news on social media (39%) and in mass media sources (38%). Social media is favored by young people: 56% among the 18-24-year-olds and only 27% among persons aged 60 and over. Older generation prefers news stories published in mass media (43% among persons aged 60 and over). Russians with incomplete secondary level of education are less likely to be interested in reading news both in social media resources (17%) and mass media sources (24%). Every second resident of Moscow and St Petersburg (49%) read news and news stories in mass media sources, unlike people living in small towns (up to 100,000 inhabitants) and rural area (35%, for each group).

Every third respondent (34%) has read fiction literature over the recent week: this share is higher among young respondents aged 18-24 (38%) than the others. Fiction is chosen by women (38%) rather than men (28%). Those Russians who have higher education diplomas opt for prose and poetry (44%); this type of literature attracts only 13% of persons with incomplete secondary education. Fiction is popular among inhabitants of Moscow and St Petersburg (49%).  

Thirty percent of respondents read professional and scientific literature. Respondents aged 18-24 (36%) and men (34%) often turn to scientific and educational literature. According to VCIOM’s survey, people with higher education diplomas (45%) are most likely to opt for scientific literature, whereas people with incomplete secondary education are least likely to do the same (11%). Metropolitan and million cities’ residents have read educational literature over the recent week (43% and 41%, respectively).

A quarter of respondents (25%) follow blogs and popular articles on the Internet; they are basically young respondents aged 18-24 (36%), Russians with higher education diplomas and inhabitants of Moscow and St Petersburg (33%, for each).

Medialogia Company has drawn up a rating of the most mentioned Russian writers. Guzel Yakhina is ranked first in terms of the number of publications in mass media (15,823 publications), followed by Zakhar Prilepin (15,666 publications) and Boris Akunin (7,412 publications).  The top five most cited authors also include Lyudmila Ulitskaya (5,887 publications) and Viktor Pelevin (5,067 publications).

The VCIOM-Sputnik survey was conducted on September 8 2018. The survey involved 1,600 Russians aged 18 and over. The survey was telephone-based and was carried out using stratified dual-frame random sample based on a complete list of landline and mobile phone numbers operating in Russia. The data were weighted according to selection probability and social and demographic characteristics. The margin of error at a 95% confidence level does not exceed 2.5%. In addition to sampling error, minor changes in question wording and different circumstances arising during the fieldwork can introduce bias into the survey.

The Medialogia rating is based on event visibility; events are ranked according to event-specific publication visibility. Publication visibility is a Medialogia metric detecting the most noticeable publications in the dominant media.   The rating is based on the information from the Russian media as of September 11, 2018, using the Medialogia database of 46,200 sources such as television, radio, newspapers, magazines information agencies and online media. The period of study: September 2017 – September 2018.  

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! The use of the Medialogia system content, fully or partially, must be accompanied by the reference to the Medialogia Company.