The FINANCIAL — This year in June ING published its study on the impact of news among an international group of journalists and PR professionals. Today, for the third consecutive year, ING publishes the outcome of the social media impact survey among Dutch consumers.
ING report provides answers to the following questions:
To what extent can trends be identified in consumer use of social and online media, the newsflow through various channels and the reliability and impact of reporting?
What is the role of news apps on tablets and smartphones, and to what extent does the reliability and impact of this medium differ from other types of media?
To what extent has consumers’ online and offline behaviour changed as a result of social media?
To what extent are there differences in the degree of reliability and impact of reports from the same source in different types of media and from different senders?
News is disseminated through various types of media. Where television and newspapers once were the primary news outlets, these days online, social and mobile media are key distributors of news. In this year’s survey ING also looked at news consumption via news apps for smartphones and tablets in addition to traditional, online and social media.. In addition, ING conducted an experiment to gain better insight into the impact of the same report via different types of media (app, internet news site) and the same report from different senders.
The 10 main insights at a glance
1. Use of Social Media stagnating. Facebook the most used platform shows a small increase compared to 2012.
2. Use of online news sites is declining. As in previous years online news sites are the most used online platforms.
3. News apps are an important means of news consumption. 1 in 2 young adults use news apps at least one a week.
4. Consumption of news via online and social media sites is stable. A quarter of Dutch consumers using social media never comes in contact with news via social media.
5. Social media are the least reliable reports on news & current affairs. Background programmes on TV and newspapers are considered the most reliable. Followed by more transient media such as news apps and online news sites.
6. Informative television, newspapers, news sites and news apps have the most impact. The more reliable the medium, the greater the impact.
7. Media impact stable versus 2013. Online news sites and news apps have the most impact on knowledge, attitude and behaviour.
8. 1 of 3 consumers act on news more actively due to social media. The more frequent the contact with news via social media, the stronger the impact on behaviour.
9. Type of medium influences reliability and impact. Tweets considered least impact-full and least reliable.
10. Sender determines reliability and impact. Tweets displaying the original source are the most reliable and impactful
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