CorpComms Magazine

Six out of ten people now trust online news compared to 54 per cent who believe what they see on television bulletins and just a third who put their faith in print journalism, according to a poll of media literacy by the media regulatory authority Ofcom. All three channels were, however, impressively outstripped by radio news broadcasts which command the confidence of 66 per cent of listeners.

Interestingly, the increased credibility of Internet news was accompanied by a significant rise in the number of people who believe that the web is a regulated medium, up 11 percentage points from 2007. The awareness that television is subject to broadcasting restrictions has remained fairly constant over the last five years, with eight in ten of the UK population holding this to be true.

The multitude of online content does not however generate the same level of confidence as its news portals. Just three in ten people consider the Internet as a whole to be reliable and accurate compared to the half of respondents who trust radio broadcasts and 52 per cent who rely on their television viewing for factual content.

Cyberspace is rivalling the high street as much as the traditional media. With seven out of ten people now using the Internet, booking holidays online has become as popular as venturing into a travel agent. Eight in ten UK adult Internet users also believe they have saved money by buying goods or services online rather than in the shops. This is despite the fact that six out of ten Internet users still believe people who buy things online are putting their privacy at risk.

The poll also found an increased awareness of security concerns amongst the web savvy populace. Over half of the UK populace now has a social networking profile, double the figure in 2007. More than three quarters of these only allow their friends and families to see their profile page. Facebook is far and away the most popular of the social networks, with nine out of ten users of online forums holding membership of the site. Twitter meanwhile is used by just one in ten. There has been a marked increase in the number of people restricting access to their profile, with just 17 per cent now allowing anyone to view its contents compared with 44 per cent in 2007.

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