The pandemic has changed social networks people’s information habits around the world, according to the Reuters Institute’s 2020 Digital News Report based on surveys in 40 countries. While many people have turned again to television and digital newspapers for news, the lockdown has also accelerated the use of new online tools , such as social groups and video conferencing.
All of this suggests an inevitable acceleration in the digitalization process of traditional special lead media . Journalism matters and is on the rise. But this interest is generating even less revenue for print newspapers, due to the reduction in advertising investment, which the economic crisis will exacerbate.
Facebook, the social network as a preferred source of information
In the challenge of finding new business models , the implementation of subscription the dilemma of local media systems now seems inevitable, according to the study. But at the same time, this approach runs the risk of causing quality information to remain restricted behind payment gateways, making it inaccessible to those without the financial resources to afford the expense.
At the same time, the pandemic has confirmed something social networks we already knew: social media use and the amount of time spent on it has increased in all countries (as we’ve seen, for example, with social media use in Spain ). So has the use of social media as a source of information. This, in turn, presents differential dynamics.
Facebook is by far the preferred social network for information (not just connecting europe email with friends): 36% of respondents use it. Twitter comes in fourth , with 12%: although the microblogging social network is perceived as primarily informative, its 330 million monthly active users are lower than Facebook’s 2.74 billion… and that’s unbeatable.
Rise of the groups
WhatsApp is one of the social networks that has grown the most as a source of information, with an increase of up to 10% in some countries. Specifically, in the United States, the United Kingdom, Germany, Spain, South Korea, and Argentina, almost a quarter of the population (24%) has used WhatsApp during the pandemic to search for, discuss, or share information related to COVID-19 .
It’s not just about family and friends: a fifth (18%) have joined a Facebook or WhatsApp group during this period to specifically discuss the coronavirus with people they don’t know.