Six out of 10 Filipinos or an estimated 40.4 million individuals consume news daily through television, a Social Weather Stations survey said.
In the nationwide survey conducted last March 28 to 31 among 1,440 adult respondents, 60 percent still catch news daily through television. Twenty-one percent or an estimated 13.9 million individuals use Facebook daily for reading the news.
Only 15 percent or about 9.7 million individuals get news through radio while two percent or some one million individuals read newspapers daily.
The SWS pointed out that Facebook as a daily news source is more common than radio and newspapers combined and is second only to television.
Half of adult Facebook members who are college (49 percent) and high school graduates (49 percent) read the news daily using the social media site. This is higher compared to 37 percent among elementary graduates and 36 percent among non-elementary graduates.
The survey also found out that 99 percent of adults who use the Internet (about 30.3 million individuals) have a Facebook account. This is equivalent to 45 percent of the total adult population (30.5 million individuals).
Thirty-eight percent of adult Internet users (11.7 million individuals) said they own a YouTube account. This is followed by Instagram with 15 percent (4.7 million individuals), Twitter with eight percent (2.7 million individuals), and Viber with seven percent (2.1 million).
The survey also asked if adult Filipinos use social media for political and social activities.
Respondents were allowed to choose more than one activity from a set of pre-listed activities in the questionnaire.
Of the estimated 30.4 million adults who have at least one social media account (among Facebook, YouTube, Instagram, Twitter, and Viber), 31 percent (9.4 million individuals) use social media to “like or promote material related to political or social issues that others have posted.”
Fourteen percent (4.3 million individuals) use it to “follow any elected officials, candidates for office, or other political figures.”
Six percent (1.8 million individuals) use it to “post own thoughts or comments on political or social issues.” Five percent (1.5 million individuals) use it to “repost content related to political or social issues that were originally posted by someone else.”
Four percent (1.2 million individuals) use it to “post links to political stories or articles for others to read” while two percent (537,000 individuals) use it to “encourage other people to take action on important political or social issues. Only one percent (365,000) use it to “encourage people to vote.” (Ellalyn V. Ruiz)