A survey from Sept. 6 to 11 by Pulse Asia released Tuesday said the majority of Filipinos still prefer to get their news through television.
The poll, conducted using face-to-face interviews among 2,400 respondents, had a plus-minus 2 percent error margin at the 95 percent confidence level.
It found that 91 percent of the adult population said television was their main source of information.
While television remains the most popular platform for news consumption, the survey found an increase in the use of radio and Internet, Pulse Asia said.
Some 49 percent of Filipino adults get their news about the government and politics through radio, a 5-percent increase from the survey conducted in June.
Using the Internet as news source, meanwhile, rose to 48 percent compared to the last survey’s 44 percent.
“Radio is a source of political news of most Visayans (67 percent), Mindanawons (64 percent), and those in Class E (55 percent),” the pollster said.
“The internet is mentioned as a news source by most Metro Manilans (72 percent), those in the rest of Luzon (55 percent), and Class ABC (60 percent), with Facebook being identified by more than half of Metro Manilans (64 percent) and those belonging to the best-off socio-economic grouping (51 percent).”
Meanwhile, only 3 percent of Filipino adults said newspapers were their source of information.
Pulse Asia also said there was a drop in percentages of those whose sources of news were their family or relatives and friends or acquaintances.
More than half or 59 percent logged on more than once a day, 22 percent logged on only once, 13 percent logged on 2 to 6 times a week, 3 percent logged on once a week and 2 percent logged on less often than once a week.
“From June 2021 to September 2021, there is a decline in the percentage of internet users who access the web more than once a day in the Philippines as a whole (-8 percentage points) as well as in the rest of Luzon (-10 percentage points), Mindanao (-19 percentage points), and Class D (-8 percentage points),” the pollster said.
The survey also found that Facebook and YouTube were the most popular social media accounts among internet users in the country, with 99 percent and 57 percent usage, respectively.
It is followed by TikTok (17 percent), Instagram (14 percent) and Twitter (8 percent).
Majority or 99 percent used the Internet to check their social media accounts while 53 percent said they logged on to read, watch or listen to content that interests them.
Pulse Asia also said that nearly all or 99 percent of Filipino adults who access the internet use an instant messaging application, with Facebook Messenger being the most often used instant messaging application (98 percent).
The respondents said they used it to talk to family members (94 percent), close friends (92 percent), co-workers (27 percent) and groups with similar interests (36 percent).
However, politics is not discussed by most Filipino adults when they communicate with different groups through instant messaging applications, the pollster said.
