Poles most often get news online and from private media, least often in newspapers and public TV

Poles are most likely to get information from the internet, a new study has found. The next most common source is television news programmes, with private station TVN the most popular among the main channels and state broadcaster TVP – which is under the influence of the ruling party – the least.

Meanwhile, the least popular news source overall is print newspapers. Over twice as many people use social media to get information than do so from the daily press.

The survey, conducted by the Institute for Internet and Social Media Research (IBIMS) in partnership with IBRiS Market and Social Research Institute, asked respondents to name their main sources for the latest information about Poland and the world (allowing them to choose more than one option).

The most common choice, listed by almost 61% of people, was news websites such as Onet and Wirtualna Polska. This was followed by the main evening news broadcasts on TVN (42%) and Polsat (40%), another private station.

The findings echo those from an annual report by the Reuters Institute and University of Oxford, which has found TVN, Polsat, Onet and Wirtualna Polska, along with private radio station RMF FM, to be the most common choices among Polish news consumers.

The next most popular choice in IBRiS’s study was social media, such as Facebook and Twitter, which was chosen by 39% of respondents. That put it ahead of TVN’s rolling news channel, TVN24, (35%), and the main evening news on state broadcaster TVP (34%).

Public media in Poland have always been under some influence from the government. But the current national-conservative ruling party, Law and Justice (PiS), has used them to an unprecedented degree to promote its own narrative and attack opponents, as was seen during last year’s presidential election.

However, according to the viewing figures published by Nielsen Audience Measurement, TVP’s main evening news last year only had a slightly smaller audience share (21%) than TVN’s (22%), with Polsat’s in third place (15%).

In IBRiS’s survey, one-third of respondents (31%) named the radio as a regular source of information, while just 18% chose weekly newspapers and 16% identified the daily press.

IBRiS also broke the data down demographically, finding that news websites and newspapers were significantly more popular among men than women, whereas social media and TVN were slightly more popular among women than men.

TVN – which is owned by US company discovery and is often criticised by PiS for favouring the opposition – was the most popular of the main three TV networks in all types of population centres. However, its dominance was greater in (generally more liberal) large towns and cities than in (more conservative) villages.

Unsurprisingly, the young were much more likely to get their information from social media and news websites than the old, who were more likely to favour radio, television and newspapers.

The survey also looked at how political views relate to news habits. Among those who last year voted for PiS-backed incumbent president Andrzej Duda, the two most common sources of information were TVP’s main evening news broadcast (61%) and its 24-hour news channel, TVP Info (53%).

Supporters of Rafał Trzaskowski, the main centrist opposition candidate, favoured news websites (61%) and TVN’s evening news (59%), with the same top two for those who backed left-wing contender Robert Biedroń.

Among voters of both independent centre-right candidate Szymon Hołownia and far-right Krzysztof Bosak, the most popular sources were news websites followed by social media.

Main image credit: TVN Fakty (screenshot)

Ben Koschalka

Ben Koschalka is a translator and senior editor at Notes from Poland. Originally from Britain, he has lived in Kraków since 2005.