Metro Manila (CNN Philippines, October 12) — A Pulse Asia survey in September found that television remains as the main source of news about politics and the government for 91% of the country’s adult population.
The study posted on Tuesday said 82% cited national television and 25% mentioned local television. The survey was conducted through face-to-face interviews with 2,400 representative adults 18 years old and above from Sept. 6 to 11.
Radio followed as the second top news source, with nearly half or 49% of adults obtaining their news about politics from radio — 18 percent of them from national radio and 32% from local radio.
The internet rounded up the top three sources of news at 48% of adults, with social media app Facebook the most sought out at 44%, news sites at 10%, other social media sites at 7% and Twitter at 1%.
The report added that 37% of the public get their news from family and relatives, 25% from acquaintances and friends, and 3% from newspapers.
Majorities in Metro Manila, Luzon, Visayas and Mindanao as well as socioeconomic classes A to E obtain their news about the country’s politics and government from television (87% to 93% and 86% to 94%, respectively).
Radio is popular in the Visayas (67%) as well as in Mindanao (64%) and among those in Class E (55%).
Meanwhile, Metro Manila residents favor the internet (72%). This is also true in Luzon (55%) and Class ABC (60%).
The survey also found that about two-thirds of the country’s adult population (63%) access the internet, with some doing so more than once daily (59%).
The most popular platforms among internet users in the country are Facebook (99%) and YouTube (57%)
Practically all internet users check their social media accounts when they go online while the rest either read, watch, and/or listen to news about the government (41%) or the elections (24%), shop (22%); send, receive, and/or read emails (20%) ; and use it for formal and/or non-formal online learning (10%).
Pulse Asia said that among the significant events that occurred during the survey period were the Senate’s investigation into the alleged mishandling of COVID-19 response funds, the detection of the Lambda variant in the country, and Senator Bong Go and President Rodrigo Duterte were declared PDP-Laban’s standard bearers for next year’s national elections.
The survey has a ± 2% error margin at the 95% confidence level. Subnational estimates for each of the geographic areas covered in the survey (i.e., Metro Manila, the rest of Luzon, Visayas and Mindanao) have a ± 4% error margin, also at 95% confidence level.
