MDPMI consumer survey shows 77% respondents access news on social media platforms

Source: © 123rf 123rf The results from the MDPMI consumer survey show that online platforms’ influence on news consumption

This is one finding from the Media and Digital Platforms Market Inquiry (MDPMI) national consumer survey that investigated how South Africans engage with news across various online platforms.

Another interesting finding is the impact of AI chatbots on news consumption is already being felt with a quarter of respondents already using chatbots frequently for news and 57% indicated that they are likely to use generative AI platforms to access news in the future.

Some of the consumer survey findings include:

• 18% of the respondents indicated using search engines (such as Google and Bing) as their main platform for news and a further 4% using search engine personalised feeds (such as Google Discover, Google News, and Microsoft Start).
• Most respondents (60-70%) consume news across all digital platforms at least once daily, with many (28-38%) actively going to the platforms to look for news.
• Breaking news drives respondents to access their preferred platforms more regularly, spend more time on them, and visit with the specific intention of consuming news rather than spontaneously.
• If news is no longer available on the platform, roughly 70% of respondents would spend less time on their preferred platforms, with roughly 10% indicating that without the news they would stop using the platform entirely.
• Across all platform types, respondents more frequently read the headlines and snippets of a news article rather than reading the headlines only. Roughly half of the respondents indicated that they did not click through to the article on the news website because the headline and snippet provided sufficient information. Other reasons cited were that the article didn’t interest them (roughly 50%) or that they did not have time to read the full article (roughly 20%).
• Apart from providing enough information, many respondents indicated that headlines and snippets are a convenient way to view news (roughly 45%), is time-efficient (roughly 38%) and means they can avoid having to pay for news (roughly 20%).
• Those that do click through to the news articles, did so more frequently if they had read the headline and snippet.
• In terms of community news and news in local languages, 45% of respondents stated that they spend more time on the platform when community news is available and roughly 20% spend more time on the platform when news in local languages is available.

Extensive use of digital platforms

The survey results draw attention to the extensive use of digital platforms and shifts in behaviour driven by the convenience of accessing news online.

The survey results further highlighted a growing awareness among South Africans of the importance of accurate and reliable news in today’s digital environment.

Most respondents across all platforms indicated that they trust the platform more when there is credible news available, and the majority agreed that the presence of credible news from reputable outlets helps reduce the spread of false information.

The survey results can be accessed here.

The Provisional Report with initial findings, remedies, and recommendations is expected to be released in November 2024.

This follows the results from focus groups previously released by the Inquiry.

The survey forms part of an extensive evidence-gathering process of the MDPMI which commenced in October 2023 in terms of section 43B(1)(a) of the Competition Act 89 of 1998 (as amended) (“the Act”).

The Inquiry was initiated because there is reason to believe that there are market features on digital platforms that distribute news media content, that impede, distort, or restrict competition, or undermine the purposes of the Act, and which have material implications for the news media sector of South Africa.

The survey looks at different groups of users by age, location, and language in how they access and consume news across three major digital platform types: social media, search engines, and personalised news feeds.