Telegram against the TV

The data of the June survey of the Levada Center demonstrate that the war has not changed the fundamental trend of recent years: the proportion of people who draw information about current events from the TV, after a short surge at the beginning of the war, reduced again, and the share of it from the Internet sources continued to grow. In Moscow, the share of viewers and the share of those who receive information from Internet sources were equal, and the share of the Telegram channels was 30%. Despite the locks and slowdown, the share of those who focus on information from social networks did not decrease in Russia. At the same time, the loyalty to the regime of viewers by 7-15 percentage points is higher than those who take information about current events from Internet sources.

The Levada Center website publisheda small review of the data from the June research regarding the media consumption of Russians, that is, the structure of sources of their information about current events. “Television remains the most common source of information for Russians. However, in Moscow, Internet sources have already been equal to television in importance. In addition, among the Muscovites, TV enjoys less confidence than in Russia as a whole, ”the authors of the review write. On average, television in Russia as a source of information was mentioned in June 63%, while in Moscow-only 52%, online publications mentioned 32% of the All-Russian sample respondents and 50% of Moscow respondents. Finally, Telegram as a source of information was mentioned by 16% of those who responded to Russia and 30% of Muscovite respondents.

In this case, Moscow acts as a leading indicator of a common trend, indicated in the late 2010s: the TV is a thing of the past, remaining mainly a source of information for the elderly. “Levada Center” gives a schedule demonstrating the changing significance of various sources of information. Re: Russia publishes a more detailed picture in drawings 1 and 2.

Figure 1. Dynamics of mentioning various sources of information by respondents, 2013–2021, % of the number of respondents

Figure 2. Dynamics of mentioning various sources of information by respondents, July 2021 - June 2022, % of the number of respondents

As you can see, in the late 2010s there was a reduction in the significance of all traditional sources of information (television, radio, newspapers and magazines) and an increase in the mention of new ones-online publications, social networks and messengers. In the early 2010s, about 90%mentioned the TV as a source of information, and in the early 2020s a little more than 60%, that is, in a decade its share was reduced by one and a half times. By the beginning of 2020, the share of references to both Internet publications and social networks surpassed the share of mentions of radio, newspapers and magazines combined, and the share of mention of social networks surpassed the share of mentions of Internet publications.

At the same time, the media consumption has acquired a pronounced age profile: the structure of information sources for younger ages (18–39 years) and groups over 55 years old looks almost mirror (Fig. 3). The former in social networks and Telegram account for 42% of all the mentioned sources of information, and less than 25% accounts for the TV. The latter, on the contrary, has almost half of all sources of information, and the share of social networks and Telegram is only 16%. It should be noted that these are two approximately equal in size of the group - about 37% of the adult population. The age group of 40–54 years in the structure of media consumption is between them, but clearly closer to younger ages.

Figure 3. Structure of sources of information of various age groups, June 2022

Since the beginning of the war, two significant changes can be noted in the picture of media consumption. Firstly, a sharp increase in the significance of Telegram channels. If in 2020–2021, Telegram mentioned an average of 6% of respondents as an information source, then in April -June it is already 16%. It could be assumed that this change reflects users after blocking and slowdown in Russia Instagram, Facebook, Tiktok and Twitter, but the surveys do not confirm this. The share of social networks has practically not changed-40% on average over 2021 and 39% in March-June 2022. The expected increase in attention to the TV after the start of the war turned out to be short -term: the share of mention increased in March to 70% against 63% on average in 2021, but by May returned to the previous level. As a result, the total fraction of the mention of social networks and Telegram as sources of information in June 2022 amounted to 55%, as close as possible to the share of the mentions of television. In this sense, we can say that the war has not changed, but, on the contrary, strengthened the main trend of recent years - intercept the audience of news with social networks.

Finally, based on the data from the last June survey of the Levada Center, one can make an idea of ​​the preferences and characteristics of respondents focusing on different sources of information (see Table 1). The level of loyalty to the traditional sources of information (TV, radio, print media) is 7-11 points higher than those who learn news from Internet publications and social networks, and 12-15 points higher than that of Telegram channels. (Note that the adequacy of data on sensitive issues is the approval of the authorities, the support of the military operation in Ukraine - in the conditions of the authoritarian regime and war, is the subject of a wide discussion; the level of loyalty identified in surveys may be high.) It is worth noting that, although the share of information from social networks has not decreased, in general, their audience now looks more loyal than readers Internet publications.

Table 1. The preferences and social characteristics of groups focusing on different sources of information, % of the number of respondents

	Traditional media: TV, radio, newspapers, magazines	Internet publications	Social media	Telegram channels
Things are going in the right direction	75	68	67	63
Approve Putin	88	80	81	73
The financial situation has worsened over the past year	31	39	32	40
The next 12 months will be a bad time for the economy	24	35	30	39
Events in Ukraine are very worried	49	41	39	39
Supporting the actions of the Russian Armed Forces in Ukraine	81	71	70	67
Higher education	27	39	33	41
Income above 50 thousand rubles	26	43	37	51
Head, manager, specialist	19	35	32	38
Pensioner	37	16	12	9
Worker in production and in agriculture	19	17	17	14

Data "Levada Center", the study "Courier", a representative sample n = 1628.

Despite the fact that the level of material wealth among readers of Telegram channels is much higher, they take more sharply the crisis associated with economic sanctions. It was noted that their financial situation has worsened over the past year, 40% of readers of Telegram channels and Internet publications and about 30% of consumers of traditional media and social networks. The expectations of the Internet audience are more pessimistic: they believe that the situation will worsen over the next 12 months, 40% of readers of Telegram channels, 30–35% of users of social networks and online publications and only 24% of news consumers of traditional media.

As already mentioned, the most important distinctive characteristic of the types of media consumption is age. However, upon closer examination, we can say that a wide social gap is observed between viewers and consumers of the Internet News. So, among viewers, higher education have a little more than 25%, and among those who draw information from Telegram and online publications, there are about 40%. Half of Telegram users have income above 50 thousand rubles, while there are only a quarter among viewers. Finally, among viewers, 55%are pensioners and unskilled workers, while among those drawing information from Internet publications and social networks there are about 30%of them, and among readers of Telegram channels-a little more than 20%.