In Europe, 71% of citizens say that TV was one of their most used media to access news in the past seven days, according to a Eurobarometer survey on behalf of the European Parliament, which assured that TV is the most commonly used media channel in most Member States. Television is followed (at a distance) by online press and/or news platforms (42%), social media platforms (37%) and radio (37%). The written press is mentioned by 21% of respondents, and video platforms by 19%.
The survey also revealed that there are differences in media usage between socio-demographic groups. For example, younger respondents are much more likely to use social media platform (59% of 15-24 year-olds vs 24% of 55+ year-olds), but they are also more likely to use video platforms (37% vs 11%, respectively), messaging apps (23% vs 12%), podcasts (13% vs 4%), and blogs (6% vs 2%). Older people make much greater use of traditional news media such as TV, radio and written press.
Compared to the “Media and News” survey conducted in 2022, there is an increase of 11 percentage points in the overall share of respondents mentioning social media platforms to access news. Smaller increases are observed in the proportions mentioning 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. Moreover, a similar picture emerges across most Member States.
Asked about news topics accessed in the past seven days, the highest-ranking topics are local news (selected by 50%), national politics (47%) and European and international affairs (45%). These topics are the highest-ranking ones across Member States.
There are differences across socio-demographic groups in news topics accessed as well. For instance, older respondents tend to access more local news (58% of 55+ year-olds compared to 31% of 15-24 year-olds). A similar difference is seen for national politics, European and international affairs, and financial and economic news. Younger respondents, in turn, are more likely to access content related hobbies and lifestyle (33% of 15-24 year-olds vs 15% of 55+ year-olds), people (30% vs 12%, respectively), and crime and accidents (36% vs 28%). While men are more likely to mention national politics (53% vs 42% of women) and European and international affair (50% vs 41%), women are somewhat more likely to mention local news (52% vs 48% of men).
