Before the turn of the
millennium, and even for a few years after that, the top sources of news
information in the Philippines has been similar to that of many other countries
after that: the “traditional triangle” of television, radio and print media. That
does not take to account the subdivisions of the first and third sources, from
aerial-broadcast channels to cable, and from daily broadsheets and tabloids to
magazines. A lot has changed from then to now, nearly two decades into the 21st
Century. Now there is a new source, the internet. For Filipinos, there is one
major choice: social media, in particular Facebook.
CNN Philippines reports that as of the end of March this year,
about 1 out of every 5 Filipinos will take their latest news on the happenings
of the world from Facebook. This was determined from a survey conducted March
28-31 by the country’s primary public-opinion polling body, the Social Weather
Stations (SWS). Said survey has it that some 13.9 million people in the
Philippines, or 21% of the nation’s adults, rely on Facebook as a news source,
more than the radio or print newspapers. Only television remains the more
common news source over Mark Zuckerberg’s massive social network brainchild.
Also according to the SWS survey,
the probability of an adult, not just in the Philippines but worldwide, to
check current news events on Facebook is dependent on whether or not they have
graduated from at least high school academic level. Thus, adult Facebook users
that are college graduates and high school graduates each account for 49% of
those who read news posted on the social media giant. Back to the Philippines,
if a Filipino adult uses the internet then he is guaranteed to have an FB
account. Some 30.3 million grownups or 99% of the country’s adult internet
users, use Facebook most of all.
The Social Weather Stations
conducted the survey from a pool of 1,440 Filipinos aged 18 and up across
Luzon, Visayas, Mindanao and Metro Manila. Other facts gleaned from the survey
are as follows: More Filipinos in urban areas (56% or 15.3 million) than in
rural locations (38% or 15.1 million) use Facebook. The highest concentration
of FB users in the Philippines is in Metro Manila (64% or 5.8 million),
followed respectively by Luzon, Mindanao and the Visayas. Finally, 86% (7.3
million) of total Filipino FB users are age 18-24, and 78% (5.9 million) of
these individuals have graduated from college.
While a number of Filipinos tend
to look at the SWS with a perception of biased surveying, the polling body has
stated that this survey has a margin of error of ±2.6% (national percentage)
plus ±5%
balance in the country’s major geographical divisions plus capital.
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