Over 70% of Russians watch news on TV daily but only half trust it - poll
MOSCOW. April 19 (Interfax) - In a poll conducted by Levada Center some 70% of respondents said they regard television as the most necessary source of information, but over half trusted the news on TV and one third of Russians named the Internet as an important source of news.
During the poll 29% of respondents said they watch news on TV every day and 42% - almost every day.
As for the Internet, one third of Russians rely on it as a source of news. Levada Center says that 10% read the news on the web daily and 23% almost daily.
The study showed that Russians are less inclined to listen to the radio and read newspapers. The share of respondents listening to the radio daily or almost daily is 21%. At the same time 69% said that they listen to the radio less than once a week or don't listen at all.
Interest in newspapers is even smaller. Only 1% said that they read newspapers daily while 70% said they do it less than once a week or don't read at all.
As for trust in sources of news about Russia and the rest of the world, 51% said they trust TV, 19% - Internet publications, 9% - newspapers, 8% - radio and 1% - magazines.
"The degree of trust in information received from TV noticeably differs from poll to poll. This may be related to the topical news agenda. Previous studies indicated that the public tends to have greater trust in news about foreign policy and lower trust in news from the domestic scene. Correspondingly the shift in the balance of news to home or foreign policy issues can influence the degree of trust in specific sources of information," Levada Center said.
Based on the poll sociologists concluded that 60% of Russians use social networks with a little over a third (36%) entering them daily or almost daily.
"As many as 70% of users of social networks consider them a source of important and new information, 72% say social networks help them relax and get rid of stress and 30% find presence in social network a waste of time," Levada Center says.
Based on the poll sociologists also concluded that some 80% of users of social networks at least sometimes come across information that irritates them. Some 15% of users constantly come across information that falls into at least one of three categories: contradicts their views, is unpleasant or distracts their attention.
"In most cases users ignore such information. However, some 25% of users of social networks block such information or complain to the administration of networks about contents that falls into at least one of three categories: contradicts their views, is unpleasant or distracts their attention," Levada Center says.
Most users want to find more information about their acquaintances (67%); a quarter (24%) would want to know of people sharing their views. "A small majority would want to see more contents from people with opposite views (5%) or from news agencies (5%)," Levada-Center says.
The poll was conducted last March and involved 1,600 adults in 136 cities and towns in 52 constituent territories of Russia.