The Union of Informed Citizens and the Leading Public Research Group have presented a new study on the level of media consumption and misinformation.

2019 According to a survey of 1,200 citizens of Yerevan and regions in June-July, most people are interested in events happening in the country: 18.1% music, 12.6% social, 11.8% entertainment and leisure, 10.4% economic and 9.8% other information.

36.5% of respondents said they prefer to get information from the internet and 35.7% from television. In other cases, people prefer to receive information from family members (8.2%), friends (7.2%) and colleagues (3.7%), rather than radio (3.7%) and print newspapers (1.5%).

People from local TV channels prefer Shant (24.6%), Armenia (24.6%) and Public Television (12.4%), while out of the foreign channels, PTP (6.1%), OPT (5.1%) and HTB (2.5%) are preferred.

According to the survey, this preference is also due to confidence. Shant, Armenia and Public TV are trusted TV channels, foreign media are less reliable.

On television most people watch news (21.6%), comedy (16.5%), music (12.8%) and soap operas (11.2%). Cultural, sports, scientific, political programs are watched less.

People prefer Public Radio (19.7%), Radio Liberty (15.7%), Aurora (10.3%), Van (7.9%), Radio Hye (7.1%), Radio Jan (6.7%). Ardzagank, City FM, Kiss FM, Voice of America have relatively little consumption.

People on the radio love to listen to music, news and comedy programs.

About 85% of respondents do not read the newspaper at all. The remaining 15% mostly read Haykakan Zhamanak (15.1%), Aravot (11.8%), Hraparak (7.5%), Iravunk (7.2%) and Yeter(6.9%). More than 18% of respondents found it difficult to say which newspapers were trustworthy, the rest responded with Haykakan Zhamanak, Iravunk and Aravot newspapers.

They expect major domestic and foreign political, cultural and scholarly articles in print media.

Fact, Soldier, Circle, Fourth Power, Football + and TV Mall are read the least.

59% of respondents use their phones to access the internet, 32% use computers, 9% use tablets. 55% use Facebook, 19% use Instagram, 13% use Odnoklassniki and only 3% use YouTube.

Facebook is the most trusted internet platform (39.6%). More than 35% of respondents said that no platform is trustworthy.

The most preferred internet sites are Azatutyun.am (18.1%) and News.am (10.7%). In the third place is 1in.am (6.1%). These sites are also considered the most trusted.

Blognews.am, News.am, 168.am, Slaq.am, 7or.am are considered unreliable websites.

More than half of those surveyed follow the social-political politician’s lives. Most watch the live broadcasts of Nikol Pashinyan, Alen Simonyan, Edmon Marukyan, Arsen Torosyan, Arayik Harutyunyan.

People on the Internet mostly follow the media (22.3%), music (15.9%) and comedic content (14.8%).

People search for information in networks mainly in Armenian (74%). 12% of respondents compare information received with other sources of which 19% do so often, while 40% only sometimes.

Most people (24%) get news from television, 23.6% from friends, neighbors and colleagues, 20.7% from social media sites, and 16.2% from online media.

According to the survey, mainly media literate are citizens aged 18-45 years. The lowest level of media literacy is in the Aragatsotn region, the highest in Tavush, Kotayk, Lori and Yerevan.

Gayane Asryan