OVER 13 million Filipinos turn to Facebook, more than newspapers and radio combined, as their news source, according to the latest Social Weather Stations (SWS) report released Sunday.

However, the First Quarter 2019 SWS survey conducted March 28 to 31 shows that television is still the main platform for news consumption.

“Compared to other news media, a majority 60% of adults (est. 40.4 million individuals) still consume news daily through television,” the report says.

An estimated 9.7 million or 15% listen to the radio for news everyday, while only 2% or an estimated 1 million read the newspapers.

For Facebook, “21% of adult Filipinos or an estimated 13.9 million individuals” use the social media platform to read news and engage in political and social activities.

As of March this year, SWS said 99% of adult internet users have a social media account on Facebook.

“This is equivalent to 45% of the total adult population (est. 30.5 million individuals),” it said.

By area, Metro Manila had the highest proportion of adults with Facebook account at 64% (or about 5.8 million individuals). The rest of Luzon was at 48% or about 14.4 million individuals, followed by Mindanao at 39% or 5.8 million individuals, and the Visayas at 33%or 4.2 million individuals.

By educational attainment, “the proportion of adults with a Facebook account is highest among college graduates at 78% (est. 5.9 million individuals). This is followed by 58% (est. 16.9 million individuals) among high school graduates, 32% (est. 6.4 million individuals) among elementary graduates, and 11% (est. 11.0 million individuals) among non-elementary graduates.”

YouTube is also popular among adult Filipino internet users with 38% or 11.7 million having their own YouTube account. Other top used social media platforms are: Instagram (4.7 million individuals), Twitter (2.7 million), and Viber (2.1 million).

POLITICAL ISSUES
The SWS survey also showed that 30.4 million have at least one social media platform they use to “Like or promote material related to political or social issues that others have posted.”

Other political activities Filipinos do on social media are: “Follow any elected officials, candidates for office, or other political figures” at 14% or 4.3 million Filipinos; “Post own thoughts or comments on political or social issues” — 6% or 1.8 million; “Repost content related to political or social issues that was originally posted by someone else” — 6% or 1.8 million; “Post own thoughts or comments on political or social issues” — 4% or 1.2 million Filipinos; “Encourage other people to take action on important political or social issues” — 2% or 537,000 Filipinos; and “Encourage people to vote” — 1% or 365,00.

The non-commissioned survey had 1,440 participants from across the country and has a sampling error margin of ±2.6% for national figures and percentages. — Gillian M. Cortez

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