Where do you get your news? Probably Facebook, TikTok, WhatsApp or X

Social media has emerged as the dominant source of news for media consumers in South Africa.

The Competition Commission’s Media and Digital Platforms Market Inquiry (MDPMI) has released the results of a survey investigating how the public engages with news across online platforms.

It is part of the commission’s broader investigation launched in October 2023 to examine potential anti-competitive practices within the digital news media distribution landscape in South Africa.

The survey found widespread use of digital platforms and changes in news consumption habits due to the convenience of online access.

It showed rising awareness among South Africans of the significance of accurate and reliable news in the digital landscape, with most respondents expressing greater trust in platforms when credible news is accessible, and most agreeing that the presence of credible news from reputable outlets helps to mitigate against the spread of false information.

The nationally representative consumer survey canvassed 1,182 respondents from rural, peri-urban and urban settings, stratified over three age categories: 18-34, 35-50 and 51-plus.

Most respondents (77%) said the main platform through which they accessed news was social media, 18% turned to search engines (such as Google Search and Bing), and 4% said they accessed news through personalised feeds (search-like formats including Microsoft Start and Google Discover, the feeds that appear when swiping right on an Android phone).

Only 1.2% of respondents said they did not access news through any of the above channels.

The top two reasons given by those who did not access news through an online platform were that they preferred to go directly to news websites (which 51% of respondents indicated), and preferred traditional platforms such as TV, radio and newspapers (48%).

During focus group discussions it emerged that for some consumers, traditional media platforms such as radio and TV remained important because they believed these offered credible and in-depth news coverage.

The vast majority of respondents — 84% — who used social media platforms to access news selected Facebook as one of the top three platforms, followed by TikTok (47%), WhatsApp (46%), YouTube (45%) and X (formerly Twitter) at 30%.

Most respondents (77%) said they accessed news via social media platforms because of the ease of access and convenience of the platforms, while 42% said they did so because it gave them easy access to breaking news stories.

News was a major draw for many platform users, with 70% saying they would spend less time on the platform and 10% that they would stop using the platform altogether if news was removed.

Google is, by far, the biggest search engine, used by 95% of respondents, followed by Bing and Yahoo, with 4% and 0.3%, respectively.

Respondents said they were more likely to read headlines and snippets of news articles than just headlines. About half of them said the headlines and snippets provided enough information, leading them to skip clicking through to the full article. Other reasons for not clicking through included lack of interest (about 50%) and time constraints (about 20%).

In addition to being informative, about 45% said headlines and snippets were convenient, time-saving (about 38%) and free (about 20%).

Why do readers click on stories? 

The top three reasons cited by respondents for not clicking on an article after reading the headline or snippet were a lack of interest in the headline or snippet (54%), the view that the headline or snippet gave enough information (48%) and a lack of trust of the source of the article (35%).

Similar views were expressed in focus groups, where consumers said they were cautious about clicking on links because of concerns about potential scams, although some said they were willing to click on links with descriptive previews or those shared by trusted contacts.

While 30% of respondents had never used generative artificial intelligence (AI) for news, the majority (65%) had tried it. Among those who had, 20% used it sparingly, 20% occasionally and 25% frequently.

A significant portion of respondents expressed a positive outlook on using generative AI for news in the future, indicating that they were likely (34%) or very likely (23%) to do so. Thirteen percent stated they were unlikely and 10% very unlikely to use this technology.

In terms of community news and vernacular news, 45% said they would spend more time on a platform when the former was available and about 20% would spend more time on the platform if news in local languages was available.

The provisional MDPMI report is expected to be released next month, to allow for sufficient time for more submissions from stakeholders, including major digital platforms and media publishers and associations. The MDPMI is also still waiting for expert reports from media companies. DM