FORTY million adult Filipinos watch television for news.
Facebook is a distant second: 14 million individuals, get their news from Facebook, according to the First Quarter 2019 Social Weather Survey (SWS) released yesterday.
The quarterly survey on Internet use, fielded over March 28-31, found that 21 percent of adult Filipinos or an estimated 13.9 million individuals use Facebook daily for reading the news.
Only 15 percent or 9.7 million individuals hear the news on radio. Even fewer, only a million Filipinos (2 percent), read newspapers daily.
Most or 60 percent of adults or about 40.4 million Filipinos still consume daily news from television.
“Facebook as a daily news source is more common than radio and newspapers combined, and is second only to television,” the survey says.
“Reading the news through Facebook is positively related to educational attainment. Half of adult Facebook members who are college (49 percent) and high school graduates (49 percent) read the news daily using the social media site. This is higher compared to 37 percent among elementary graduates and 36 percent among non-elementary graduates.”
As of March 2019, nearly all adult Filipino or 99 percent who use the Internet have a Facebook account. That’s nearly half or 45 percent of the total adult population of 30.5 million Filipinos.
Facebook membership is more common among younger, more educated Filipinos.
By age group, the proportion of adults with a Facebook account is highest among 18-24 years old at 86 percent or 7.3 million individuals.
This is followed by 71 percent or 9.5 million individuals among 25-34 year old; 55 percent or 7.3 million individuals among 35-44 year old; 29 percent or 3.6 million individuals among 45-54 year old; and 14 percent or 2.6 million among those aged 55 years and above.
Urban dwellers most common with Facebook account
The proportion of adults with a Facebook account is highest among college graduates at 78 percent (about 5.9 million individuals). This is followed by 58 percent (estimated 16.9 million individuals) among high school graduates; 32 percent (6.4 million individuals) among elementary graduates; and 11 percent (about 11 million Filipinos) among non-elementary graduates.
Having a Facebook account is more common among urban dwellers than rural dwellers. Most or 56 percent of adults in urban areas (15.3 million individuals) are on Facebook, compared to 38 percent in rural areas (15.1 million individuals).
The proportion of adults with Facebook account is highest in Metro Manila (64 percent) followed by Luzon (48 percent), Mindanao (39 percent) and the Visayas (33 percent).
YouTube is the second most popular social media site among adult Filipino Internet users. About 11.7 million (38 percent) of adult Internet users own YouTube accounts.
Instagram is the next most popular, with 4.7 million (15 percent) users. It’s followed by Twitter with 2.7 million (8 percent) followers then Viber with 2.1 million (7 percent).
About 30.4 million adult Filipinos have at least one social media account (Facebook, YouTube, Instagram, Twitter and Viber). Three in 10 or 9.4 million of them use social media to “like or promote material related to political or social issues that others have posted”.
About 4.3 million (14 percent) use social media to “follow any elected officials, candidates for office, or other political figures”.
Some 1.8 million individuals (6 percent) use it to “post own thoughts or comments on political or social issues”.
An estimated 1.5 million Filipinos (5 percent) use it to “re-post content related to political or social issues that was originally posted by someone else”.
Four percent or 1.2 million individuals use it to “post links to political stories or articles for others to read”.
Two percent or 537,000 individuals use it to “encourage other people to take action on important political or social issues”.
Only 1 percent or 365,000 use it to “encourage people to vote”.
Jose Miguel Alberto M. Carlos prepared the SWS report, with special tabulations by Joanne Evangelista and Aileen Montibon. (I.M. Biazon)
Feature image of Facebook courtesy of Cristian Ferronato on Pixabay Other images from Social Weather Station.