Television continues to dominate as the primary news source for European citizens, according to a Eurobarometer survey on behalf of the European Parliament.
Television holds 71% of attention, followed by online press and news platforms (42%), with radio and social media platforms sharing third position on 37% each.
Citizens see online news platforms and social media channels, including influencers, increasingly as trusted new sources. Social media has grown by 11 percentage points compared to the last survey taken in April/May 2022.
68% of respondents recall having recently obtained news about the European Union via either press, internet, television or radio – with considerable variation across Member States, between 49% in France and 87% in Croatia and Romania. The share of respondents having recently read, seen or heard something about the EU increases slightly with age, men (76%) are more likely than women (60%) to reply this way, as do more highly educated respondents.
For 71% of respondents, TV is still one of their most used media to access news in the past seven days, followed (at a distance) by online press and news platforms (42%). Radio and social media platforms (both 37%) are on shared third position followed by the written press, mentioned by 21% of respondents.
Compared to Parliament’s Media and News survey 2022, there is an increase of 11 percentage points in the overall share of respondents who use social media platforms to access news; smaller increases are observed when it comes to the use of messaging apps (+5 pp), video platforms (+4 pp) or podcasts (+2 pp). The increase in the use of these media is seen in all age groups and across most Member States.
Asked about news topics accessed in the past seven days, local news (selected by 50%), national politics (47%) and European and international affairs (45%) come first.
While a vast majority of respondents follows the news on a daily basis (70%), it is interesting to note that 9% avoid some type of news (including 6% who try to avoid some news topics and 3% who aim to actively avoid all news). The proportion replying that they follow the news on a daily basis increases with age, while news avoidance is slightly more likely among women, younger respondents and the lowest educated.
37% of respondents follow influencers or content creators on social media platforms. This percentage varies widely among the different age-groups. 79% of young Europeans (aged between 15 and 24) follow influencers or content creators, while only 14% of those aged +55 do so.