Respondents were asked: On a typical day, from which of the following sources do you get information about politics and current affairs:
The topmost selected answer was TV or radio where 79.8% of respondents reported on a typical day, they got information on politics and current affairs from here. This was followed by newspapers/magazines (including online; 77.7%), social media (71.2%) and conversations with friends, family, and colleagues (70.4%). A further 3.1% of respondents stated they used another information source.
Respondents were also asked about what percentage of information on politics and current affairs did they get from social media. More than a third of respondents (38.6%) stated they got 10% or less of their information on politics and current affairs from social media. Less than one in twenty (4.5%) respondents got more than 80% of their information on politics and current affairs from social media.
Respondents were asked when they read, watched, or heard news, which three of the following factors mattered the most to them in deciding whether the news was trustworthy:
The topmost selected reason was the organisation or the specific journalist that published the story where nine in ten (90.1%) respondents selected this as one of the three factors that mattered most when deciding if the news was trustworthy. This was followed by sources being cited in the story with three-quarters (75.1%) of respondents selecting this option. Out of the six above reasons for deciding if the news is trustworthy, agreeing with the point of view or information provided by this source and how many likes, comments, or shares the story had on social media were the two least selected factors (6.9% and 2.4% respectively).
Respondents were asked: In general, would you say that government institutions (such as the national statistical office) provide statistics which/that:
Almost three-quarters (73.1%) of respondents felt that government statistics were often or always trustworthy whilst 6.4% thought these statistics were never or rarely trustworthy.
Close to half (48.2%) of respondents felt that national statistics were often or always easy to find and 57.6% felt national statistics were often or always easy to understand.
More than one-third (36.2%) of respondents stated that statistics provided by the national statistics office never or rarely allowed them to verify whether the government keeps their promises.
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