COLOMBO– Television is king, print is in retreat though still relevant and Sri Lankan audiences are bucking the global trend of shifting from legacy media to online media, a May 2020 survey revealed.

The survey, carried out by International Media Support (IMS) Sri Lanka, found that demographics, technology, lifestyle and significant political developments are seeing Sri Lanka’s media rapidly evolve.

However, television is still very much at the forefront as the mostly used, fastest, most preferred and most trusted news media in Sri Lanka, the study found.

“Television is also the media they are most likely to consume every day in their own homes. More than 9 out of 10 get their information on news and current affairs from terrestrial TV broadcasts and a fifth of news consumers watch only TV foregoing all other media. This has made a handful of privately-owned and loosely-regulated television channels massively influential among Sri Lankans of all ages and in all regions,” a summary of the findings noted.

Radio is a distant second, according to the research. In listenership, there are differences between age groups and a clear urban-rural divide. Less than half of Sri Lankans 15-25 years of age listen to the news on the radio while the percentage grows gradually as respondents age, with 6 out of 10 in the two groups above 45 years getting their news from the radio.

“Newspapers and magazines are in retreat with just 4 out of 10 choosing print across gender and geographical boundaries. Except for one province, Sabaragamuwa, where nearly 6 out of 10 people read newspapers, every other place showed similarly low print consumption,” the report said.

The study also found that social media and the internet are used as a source by less than a third of Sri Lankans with Facebook the dominant platform.

“This is parallel to internet penetration. Here again there is a clear divide between urban and rural users as 4 out of 10 urban Sri Lankans use social media daily and over 30% of them get their news off the web. The internet and usage of social media is definitely emerging, but it is clear Sri Lankans have yet to move on to the web and totally away from legacy media such as TV, radio and print,” the report said.

Meanwhile, according to the study, a “very powerful” medium of communication including sourcing and verification of news has emerged in the form word of mouth news sharing, where respondents rested their faith in family members and influential community leaders.

There is broad agreement across Sri Lanka that news is important for daily life, the survey found. The summary noted that a vast majority ensure that consuming news is a daily habit, with nearly all respondents affirming that it is important for them to be updated about what’s happening around them.

“Two thirds said they were gravely impacted when they did not get key information. News and current affairs help them to update their knowledge and help them to prepare themselves take immediate action.”

When it came to trust, though television is the medium most Sri Lankans get their news and current affairs, only just over a third of the viewers have a high level or implicit trust in the most popular Sinhala language channels. Even the two most watched, Hiru and Derana had the same trust levels, the report said. At the next level of trust, asked whom they “trust somewhat” the top five TV channels had similar scores, around 40%, it added.

According to the IMSSL report, respondents cited personal experiences for being distrustful of media.

“They called some news report ‘half-baked’ as they lacked detail and context. Some of the reports they said were incredulous like that of a story about a ten-headed snake that had emerged near a temple and seen as an auspicious sign, which it was later revealed looked like that in the TV picture because of a reflection in a glass case,” it said.

Trust levels in Sinhala radio, which the statement said is a more fragmented market due to a high number of stations, were around the same as TV. Hiru and Derana radio were the most trusted although they scored around the same as their counterpart TV channels. Neth FM, which has no counterpart TV channel also scored well.

Tamil-only radio channels Sooriyan, Shakthi, Vasantham and Varnam all scored high on the trust charts each of them getting scores of over 75% among the minority Tamil speakers, the report noted.

The study also found that fewer people read the newspapers but those consumers trusted what they read at levels are higher than most other media.

“Only around a third of all Sri Lankans consume news on social media or other internet sources.  With Facebook the dominant platform very few users had total trust in the medium but two-thirds had some trust in what was being posted and shared.

“Word of mouth, news you get from family members, local religious figures, teachers and important officials are very important for Sri Lankans. More than half of the respondents said that they trusted those sources the most, choosing to consulting family members to verify news.”

Perhaps the most interesting find of the study was that Sri Lankans for the most part are bucking the trend seen in many other countries that audiences are gradually shifting from legacy media, TV, radio and newspapers to digital or web-based media. According to IMSSL, these trends are driven by a combination of demography, technology and market forces. The survey tested this hypothesis with focus groups, the statement said.

Sri Lankans also refer to multiple sources for verification of news and information which includes web-based media and non-internet users checked word of mouth with family or peers.

“A majority also rejected the assumption that they increasingly prefer social media, Facebook in particular. Here too TV came first and social media a distant fifth with less than a third of those who were surveyed trusting Facebook or other digital platforms.

“Sri Lankan news consumers are deeply divided when it comes to the use of the internet to access news and current affairs. The internet gulf also impacts on how each group verifies what they see and hear on traditional or legacy media.”

Less than half of Sri Lankans use the internet with penetration around forty percent, according to the study.

“Usage of the internet to consume news differed widely, depending on gender, age and geographical distribution, with urban Sri Lankans using the internet way more than their rural cousins. More men, 15 to 34 year olds and the people of the Northern and Eastern Provinces were online than the others,” the summary noted.

“Almost all of the internet users preferred to access the internet using their own smartphones and use of desktop computers or tablets was low,” it added.

The survey also found differences between urban and rural news consumers as well as between different regions, particularly where a minority community is in a majority locally.

“The Northern and Eastern provinces where the minority Tamil community is dominant returned numbers significantly different to the rest of the country where the majority Sinhala community dominates.

“For instance, the trust levels in traditional media TV, radio and print were higher in senior citizens of both genders in the Northern capital of Jaffna than the national average. In contrast the lower age group, the adults showed a distrust of the same group of news providers that was higher than the rest of the country.”

Respondents across Sri Lanka who described themselves as frequent internet users on average checked news on line 64 % of the time. The study found that in the Northern Province this number was 78% and was even higher in the Eastern Province.

“In contrast the Western Province which has the highest internet penetration only about half of the population went online every day. Checking in online was also high in the Central and Southern Provinces where two-thirds of the respondents said they did so. “

When asked about how important the news for daily lives on average, the summary noted, 77% said it was very important while in the Northern Province 93% said it was important.

“However, their interest in national news and current affairs was very low. Nationally the survey found that four out of ten Sri Lankans thought national news was very important but in the North only 14% said they watched national news.

“Interest in national politics was generally low across the country except for the Southern and North Central Provinces where a little over a fifth of respondents said they were keen on this subject.”

Respondents in the North also followed regional media, the report said.

“Again in the North and East interest was low with only 6% of respondents in the Eastern Province consuming news about national politics,” it added.

-economynext.com