TV is still the leading news source in Russia, a recent survey revealed. 74% of Russians get their news about event in the country and the world from television.

3 out of 4 Russians learn news from TV

The survey was conducted on 19-25 March in Russia by Levada, and in our rapidly changing world this could have already changed.

A recent survey by WCIOM demonstrated that Russians started to use Internet more during lockdowns. Normally WCIOM numbers are seen by industry insiders as less trustworthy that Levada’s, but in this case they are newer.

The lockdowns were announced in Russia on March 26 as “non-working days”, at first it was supposed to last a week, but then extended to the end of April and then once again to May 11. Thus, what was happening with people’s news sources in March might have changed dramatically by now.

Internet sources were faster to bring news and updates. It was also possible to find out what is happening in other countries, as well as other cities.

Instagram bloggers noticed a substantial rise in visits that had geo location. We reported earlier that Instagram is very popular with Russian girls and as you can see from diagrams below its popularity had been steadily rising.

Still, preferences of news sources among Russians as recorded in March 2020 were as following:

1. TV: 74%
2. Social networks: 39%
3. Internet media (blogs and websites): 38%

Trustworthy news sources in Russia

However,  there is another dimension to news: How trustworthy is the source.

Again, TV is leading in the rating of trustworthiness:

1. TV: 50%
2. Internet media (blogs and websites): 22%
3. Social networks: 20%

Social networks are seen as the least trustworthy source of news.

At the same time, the level of trust to online media is growing, while it remains relatively stable for TV. In 2013, TV scored 51% in the rating of trust, while online media got rated at 14% and social networks at 11%.

The number of people reading news online daily went up from 10% in 2018 to 36% in 2020.

Data: Levada

Read also:

• Where do Russians get information and how much do they trust TV, Internet and social networks?
• Why do Russian girls prefer Instagram?
• How to detect bots on Twitter
• Why cannot Russian girls find a partner at home and seek foreign men on dating sites?