PRESS/MEDIA RELEASE

 

MEDIA IN INDIA: ACCESS, PRACTICES, CONCERNS AND EFFECTS

A Survey-based Study by Lokniti-CSDS in partnership with Konrad Adenauer Stiftung

 

The Lokniti programme of the Centre for the Study of Developing Societies, in partnership with Konrad Adenauer Stiftung (KAS), undertook a comprehensive India-wide study of media consumption behaviour in India to understand people’s day to day media practices and their media-related concerns and attitudes. The study focused on both traditional (TV, newspaper, radio etc.) and new (mobile phone, internet, social media, digital etc.) media. It was conducted in 19 States (Andhra Pradesh, Assam, Bihar, Chhattisgarh, Delhi, Gujarat, Haryana, Jharkhand, Karnataka, Kerala, Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra, Odisha, Punjab, Rajasthan, Tamil Nadu, Telangana, Uttar Pradesh and West Bengal) among 7,463 citizens aged 15 years and above. Unlike the many other media consumption surveys/studies nowadays that are either conducted only among city-dwellers or only among internet users, the study was based on a nationally representative and all-encompassing survey covering all segments of the society – the rural as well as the urban citizens, the rich and the poor, the young and the old, men and women, and the non-literate as well as the educated. Moreover, it was not just limited to those who use internet and smartphones but captured the experiences and perceptions of even those who do not yet have access to them.

 

Here are some of the key findings to have emerged from the survey-based study:

Mobile dominance: The survey highlights the growing importance of a mobile phone in the life of an average Indian.  Around seven out of ten 15+ citizens (69%) in the country today own a mobile phone, and of them nearly two-thirds (43%) are smartphone owners. This means that more people in India today own a smartphone than an ordinary mobile phone which was not the case till about three years ago when a national survey by Lokniti had found more citizens to be using basic and feature phones than smartphones (See Table 1).

The survey also found that that internet usage in the country is mostly happening through the mobile phone and that nine out of ten mobile phone users have internet on their phone (See Table 2). Very few households (only one in ten) also access the internet through a reliable internet connection at home (See Table 3).

According to the survey, on average, mobile phone users in India today spend about three hours on their mobile phone daily, which is about the same as the time spent by daily TV viewers watching TV everyday. Among smartphone users specifically, the average time being spent on the smartphone daily is over four hours (See Table 4). One-third of mobile phone owners said they would feel extremely restless if their mobile phone was taken away from them for a day (See Table 5) as opposed to a quarter of daily TV watchers who said the same for TV.

Digital divide persists but less sharp: Although there is no doubt that access to mobile phones and the internet among people has increased in a major way over the last few years, a digital divide still exists, even though it is less sharp now than earlier. The usage/ownership of digital devices such as mobile phones, smartphones, and computers/laptops/tablets is comparatively still much less among the elderly, the economically poor, non-literate and rural citizens than it is among the young, economically well-off, educated and urban citizens (See Table 6). It is also far lower among women compared to men. As far as castes and communities are concerned, Scheduled Tribe citizens and households are least likely to use or own digital devices or have access to internet. The use of and access to digital technologies among Scheduled Caste citizens and households isn’t too high either. Hindu upper castes on the other hand are the most likely to use or own them. This skew is mostly due to economic class and education.

Internet usage is mostly about social media usage: The most common and popular activity on the internet is the usage of social media and messaging services. The survey found that nine out of ten active internet users use social media and messaging platforms (at least one of them), which is far greater than any other activity that internet users are engaging in on the internet (See Table 7). While search engines are being used by three-fourths of active internet users, news and current affairs website browsing is being done by around seven out of ten of them. Significantly, the usage of e-mails is only being done by about two-thirds of active internet users and that too quite irregularly.

Facebook dominance fades, YouTube the rising star: The most used social media and messaging platforms by Indians currently are WhatsApp and YouTube (See Table 8), both of which have seen steady growth during the last three years. Facebook, which was once the most dominant social media platform has slipped to the third position according to the survey. Many of Facebook’s users seem to have shifted to using Instagram, which the survey found to be the fourth most used social media platform in India. Quite surprisingly, the usage of Twitter, the micro blogging service, continues to lag behind quite a bit. The survey not only found it to be less popular than Telegram (a messaging platform that was launched much after Twitter), but also found it to be used more infrequently by its users than frequently. 

Government surveillance acknowledged but not considered immoral by many: Most smartphone and internet users were found to hold the belief that the government monitors what people do on the internet or their phone, i.e., they acknowledged that it takes place (See Table 9). However this acknowledgment does not mean that they disapprove of government surveillance. This is because when the same people were asked to give their opinion about the morality/ethicality of government surveillance, a sizeable proportion of them saw nothing wrong with it (See Table 21). On the whole people were more likely to disapprove of phone conversation surveillance than social media surveillance. They did make a clear distinction between the two. While most disapproved of the former, as far as the latter is concerned, there was greater approval of it than disapproval.

Social media used a lot by internet users but least trusted: Even though most internet users are mostly engaged in using social media and messaging platforms on the internet more than any other internet service, nonetheless they do not trust the information that they receive on social media platforms very much. Very few active social media users were found to have high trust in the information or news that they receive on social media. Most have moderate to low trust. While Twitter and WhatsApp are the most highly trusted of all platforms, even with respect to them only a sixth of their users highly trust them to disseminate/carry correct news or information (See Table 10).

Around half of all social media users were found to be highly or moderately concerned about receiving fake news or information on social media or messenger apps (See Table 11), and nearly half of all social media users admitted to have been misled by fake news or information online at some point (See Table 12).

The survey also found social media companies to be far less trusted than other internet services such as search engines or government websites when it came to the issue of ensuring the secrecy and confidentiality of personal data and activities (See Table 13).

Harassment on social media: Harassment and trolling on social media is something that quite a few social media users have experienced. Around one-third of active Facebook, WhatsApp and Twitter users reported being threatened, harassed or trolled by known or unknown people after sharing content on these platforms during the last one year (See Table 14). This harassment may be resulting in self-censorship or a spiral of silence on social media. That’s because the survey also found that around two in every five social media users have in the last year either stopped themselves from expressing their political opinions, or at least thought twice about doing so, because they feared being misunderstood, seen in a bad light by people they know or being harassed by strangers (See Table 15).

The survey found that not many social media users in India are posting or expressing their thoughts and opinions on issues. They are in fact far more likely to post photographs, particularly selfies, on their social media platforms than post opinions (See Table 15). On the issue of whether social media and WhatsApp are safe places to express one’s opinion on politics was found to be badly divided (See Table 17).

A guarded and perhaps illiberal outlook regarding freedom of expression on social media: Most of the survey respondents were found to carry what could be considered as conservative or illiberal opinions on the issue of free speech and expression on social media. For instance, a greater proportion of social media users expressed their opposition to than support for the proposition that “even if an idea or opinion is seen as offensive, there is nothing wrong if people express it on social media or WhatsApp” (See Table 18). They were also more against the posting of supposedly ‘offensive’ and ‘objectionable’ opinions about the government on social media and messaging platforms than in favour of it (See Table 19). However on this matter (that of posting an ‘objectionable’ opinion about the government), their opposition was relatively less strong when compared with their opposition to posting opinions of an ‘offensive’ nature on social media more generally.

Support for internet shutdowns by governments on law and order grounds was also greater than opposition to it (See Table 20).  The only issue, perhaps, on which a not so conservative opinion was seen, was that of government regulation of social media content. Social media users were far more likely to be against than in favour of the idea of the government determining what can or cannot be posted on social media or Whatsapp (See Table 21).

TV still the main news source: Despite it being the age of the internet, for most Indians, the traditional medium of television continues to be the main go to source for news. In the survey, people were twice as likely to cite TV as their main source of news as they were to cite new media, i.e., internet/mobile phones/social media (See Table 22).

Within the traditional media landscape, it is television that is far more dominant as the primary news source than newspapers – nearly seven times more dominant. Moreover, most Indians seem to prefer to watch news channels (on TV or elsewhere) rather than read newspapers. While there is nothing new in this and news channels have always been more popular than newspapers, the gap between the two mediums seems to have widened further. Newspapers, however, fare better than online news websites. While half of all respondents reported reading a newspaper, two-fifths said that they visit/browse news and current affairs websites (See Table 23).

Content being consumed in local language: Much of the news and entertainment that people are consuming seems to be in their local language. While in the northern and central parts of the country, most people are accessing/consuming news and entertainment (films, TV dramas etc.) in Hindi, in other parts of the country it is the non-Hindi regional languages that mostly dominate. Having said that, there were quite a few respondents (25-35%) in the non-Hindi speaking states of Gujarat, Maharashtra, Assam and Punjab who did report consuming news and entertainment mostly in Hindi and not the local language (See Table 24). Significantly, a very miniscule proportion of Indians consume news and entertainment in English and in this context the importance given to English language media, particularly English news media, by media watchers seems rather disproportionate.

There also seems to be a yearning among news consumers to return to the old way of delivering news. In spite of the fact that news channels are increasingly choosing to have more for debate-oriented shows than traditional style news bulletins, most news consumers in the survey preferred the latter than the former when given a choice between the two (See Table 25).

Little trust in private news channels: The findings related to people’s trust in news media present a mixed picture as consumers of news seem to be making a clear distinction between different types of news sources when it comes to trusting them. While the public broadcaster Doordarshan and newspapers (generally speaking) were found to enjoy a high amount of trust from their consumers (one-third of their consumers said they highly trust them); private news channels did not fare as well with only one in every seven of their viewers reporting high faith in the news being disseminated by them.  All India Radio news and online news websites did even worse than private news channels (See Table 26).

 

TABLES

Table 1: Big transformation in type of mobile phone owned during last 3 years

	Smartphone ownership	Ordinary phone ownership
2019	33	40
2022	43	26

Note: Figures shown here and in the other tables are percentages, unless specified otherwise.

Source for 2019: NES 2019 (2 rounds merged). Question wordings in 2019 and 2022 were slightly different. In 2022, respondents were asked if they owned a mobile phone that only they used mostly, and if they did, then what kind was it.   In 2019, respondents were simply asked about what kind of mobile phone they had and not whether they were the only ones using it.

 

Table 2: Proportion of mobile phone owners having Internet on their phone

	Internet on phone
Among Mobile phone owners (overall)	89
Among Smartphone owners	99
Among Ordinary phone owners	72

 

 

 

 

Table 3: Presence of media and communication sources in Indian homes

TRADITIONAL SOURCES AT HOME
Television set	75
Newspaper (get it daily or often)	27
Magazine (get it periodically or often)	13
Music system or transistor	22
NEW OR RELATIVELY NEWER SOURCES AT HOME
At least one mobile phone-owning member (includes smartphone)	84
At least one smartphone-owning member	76
Computer/laptop/tablet	19
Private internet connection at home	12

 

 Table 4: Time spent on mobile phones daily by mobile phone users, compared to time spent on TV by daily TV watchers

	Average time (hours) spent daily
On mobile phone (all types)	2.83
On  smartphone	4.22
On ordinary mobile phone	1.81
On TV (by daily TV watchers)	2.92

 

Table 5: How restless would mobile phone owners feel without their phone for a day?

	%
Extremely restless	32
Somewhat restless	24
Not much restless	16
Not at all restless	28

 

Table 6: The digital divide:  ownership of mobile phones/smartphones among key socio-demographics

	Ordinary phone	Smartphone	No phone
Location type
Villages	28	37	35
Towns	27	50	23
Cities	22	59	19
Big cities	17	63	19
Age group
15-17	6	60	33
18-25	13	74	14
26-35	21	62	17
36-45	35	41	25
46-55	34	27	39
56+	32	13	55
Gender
Women	24	32	44
Men	28	54	18
Economic class
Poor	30	19	51
Lower Class	30	32	38
Middle Class	24	55	21
Upper Class	15	80	6
Education
Non-literate	26	5	69
Primary school	43	16	42
Middle pass	40	33	27
High school	22	64	14
College & above	9	88	3
Caste-community
Hindu upper	23	55	22
Hindu OBC	27	43	30
Hindu Dalit	29	36	35
Hindu Adivasi	23	32	45
Muslim	29	38	32
Other minorities	24	51	25

 

Table 7: What are active internet users doing on the internet?

Active internet users who…
Use social media	91
Use search engines	75
Visit current affairs websites	70
Use email	64
Download or stream movies	62
Use Wikipedia	57
Post an opinion or share a link	53
Use meeting and chat apps	52
Write a blog	28

Note: Active internet users are those who said that they had used the internet for some activity in the two months prior to the survey. Even those who do these activities rarely have been included here

 

Table 8: Usage of various social media and messaging platforms among 15+ citizens

	Daily	Weekly	Very little	Never/Don’t use internet
WhatsApp	34	5	4	57
YouTube	27	9	5	59
Facebook	23	8	6	63
Instagram	15	8	6	71
Telegram	10	7	5	78
TikTok (pre-ban)	8	7	4	81
Twitter	6	6	7	81
Snapchat	6	5	5	84
Koo	3	3	4	90
Clubhouse	2	3	4	91
LinkedIn	2	4	4	90
Signal	2	4	5	89
Tinder, Bumble etc.	2	4	5	89
Some other app*	4	4	5	87

 

Table 9: Perception regarding government surveillance

	Does the government monitor what people do on internet or their phone?
	Yes, it monitors	It monitors some, not all	No, it doesn’t monitor	Non-committal or no idea
All respondents	24	10	14	52
Mobile phone users	29	12	15	44
Smartphone users	35	14	18	33
Active internet users	34	15	17	34

 

 Table 10: Trust in information or news received on various social media platforms

	High trust	Moderate	Very little	None at all	Non-committal
Twitter	17	33	21	12	17
WhatsApp	16	38	21	13	12
Koo	14	29	18	16	23
YouTube	14	37	22	13	14
Facebook	14	35	26	14	11
Signal	13	17	20	26	24
Instagram	11	33	27	15	14
Telegram	11	30	24	17	18
Clubhouse	11	20	20	26	23

Note: Figures for each platform are among their active users. Active user means daily or weekly user. (Read more)