Beyond the realms of TV, newspapers
By Aditya Kumar Trivedi
For Akshita Rawat, 18, a first-year language student at Doon University, the first news alert of the day is more likely to arrive on her phone. She checks social media, read – Instagram once a day. Similarly, Tejal gets her news from Instagram and YouTube.
Sahil Uniyal, 18, an undergraduate student says he too prefers social media for news but back at home his father choose newspaper and TV news to keep track of developments in Uttarakhand and elsewhere.
This contrasting outcome was reflected in a survey to understand news consumption habits among the youngsters. In fact, the survey was based on a small student sample and does not represent young people across India. A total of 405 respondents studying in different universities across Dehradun participated in a survey which covered questions like what their preferred mode of news was and which source they trust the most. The survey was followed by couple of individual interviews as well.
The survey suggests that news remains a regular part of respondents’ daily routines, although the frequency varies. About 34% said they deliberately look for news once a day, while 31% check for news multiple times a day. Another 21% said they actively seek news a few times a week.
Only 11% said they rarely look for news, while 3% said they never deliberately seek it out. Overall, nearly two-thirds (65%) of respondents said they actively look for news at least once a day.
Out of 405 respondents, 60% aged 18–20 years. Another 32% were aged 21–23, meaning more than nine in 10 respondents (92%) were between 18 and 23 years old. About 5% of respondents were under 18, while only 2% were aged above 24.
A key finding of the survey indicate that Instagram emerged as the most common first source of news among respondents, with 34% saying they usually encounter news there first. YouTube was the second-most cited platform at 19%, followed by WhatsApp links or alerts at 10%.
Traditional news platforms continued to feature in the news-consumption mix, but at lower levels, 8% of respondents said newspapers were their first source, while 7% cited television. Another 22% selected “Other” sources including X platform (formerly known as twitter), paid news applications, podcast, news portals.
Taken together, the findings show that social and messaging platforms play a significant role in determining where young respondents first come across news, with Instagram and YouTube alone accounting for more than half (53%) of the responses.
Vinit, a young student pursuing Graduation in Mandarin tells he is a news junky and often check for updates multiple times. “I usually check several online platforms, as well as TV applications. It is always better to surf platforms than to rely on one source” he told.
The findings also suggest that most respondents do not immediately accept important news seen on social media. About 34% said they check another source, while 30% look for the original source. Another 19% said they search Google to verify the information.
Only 6% said they believe such news immediately, while 4% save it for later and 7% follow other approaches. Overall, 83% of respondents said they take some form of additional step to verify or investigate important news encountered on social and messaging platforms.
Interestingly, in the survey, newspapers were not the most popular source of news among respondents, but they emerged as the most trusted. Nearly one-third (32%) of the 405 respondents said they trust newspapers the most.
Instagram ranked second at 21%, followed by news websites or paywall apps at 13%, YouTube at 12% and television at 9%. Another 13% chose other sources – X platform, paid news apps, news portals.
The survey shows a difference between where young people first see news and which source they trust for important news. While Instagram was the most common first source of news in the survey, newspapers were the most trusted source when the news was considered important.
As social media is often flooded with AI generated images, misinformation and disinformation, the survey tried to understand what the impact is of a wrong visual or information on the user. The youngsters were shared an old photo from Uttarakhand disasters and captioned it as recent photo from the Nepal flash floods. The respondents were asked at first glance whether it looks real or fake.
59% thought it was a real picture while 41% believed it was fake.
Visual appearance was the biggest factor respondents used to judge whether an image was real or fake. Among responses, 31% said the image looked realistic, while 16% based their judgment on something they found suspicious in the image. Another 15% said they recognised the location. 12% accepted that they have simply guessed, another 12% said they need to check the source of the photo. 9% claimed they have seen the photo before whereas 5% of the respondents said they were convinced by the caption.
The responses show that the appearance of an image often shapes the first judgment, while checking its source appears to be less common.
(Aditya Kumar Trivedi is an undergraduate student learning Chinese language at Doon University).
