Fresh research by the Reuters Institute for the Study of Journalism (RISJ) found increasing dependence on smartphones as a means of consuming news content, with the majority of people selecting social networking apps as their primary source.
In its Digital News Report 2020, RISJ noted a YouGov survey of more than 80,000 online news consumers in 40 markets showed 69 per cent were now using smartphones to access news on a weekly basis, with the devices also driving growth in consumption of short video and audio content such as podcasts.
Consumers in Kenya and South Africa were among the highest users, with Canada, Japan and the majority of Eastern Europe at the other end of the scale.
The research highlighted Facebook subsidiary Instagram as a rising star in terms of news content provision, cited by 11 per cent of respondents compared with 12 per cent for leader Twitter.
RISJ noted the use of Instagram had doubled since 2018 “and looks likely to overtake Twitter over the next year”.
Facebook and subsidiary WhatsApp benefitted from a desire to access news about Covid-19 (coronavirus) in terms of people accessing information, with the reasearch also highlighting increased consumption regarding the pandemic on Intstagram, Snapchat and TikTok.
