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* "95% confidence level" means that if we were to repeat a certain survey 100 times, using the same questions each time but with different random samples, we would expect 95 times getting a figure within the error margins specified.
** Collapsed from a 5-point scale.
^ The change for this item is less than 1%.
^^ As respondents can choose more than 1 answer, figures in brackets ( ) indicate percentages of total responses, while other figures indicate percentages of total respondents. Only figures in brackets have been included in the original release.
# The findings of 「Magazines」 were released in the original release.
Results of the late-October survey showed that, 86% and 72%* of the respondents claimed their main source of news was the television and the newspaper respectively, while 57% thought the news reported by the former channel was the most trustworthy. Regarding people's appraisal of various news channels, 74% of the respondents were satisfied with the television, whereas 54% were satisfied with the radio. Comparatively speaking, people's satisfaction with the printed media was lower, as the respective satisfaction rates of the newspaper and the magazine were 31% and 6% only. All in all, the latest satisfaction rate of the above news media in general was 49%.
* The percentages of respondents who claimed their main source of news was television and newspaper were 36% and 30% respectively in the original release.
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Commentary
Robert Ting-Yiu Chung, Director of Public Opinion Programme, observed, "Our survey shows that television and newspapers continue to be people's main sources of news, followed by radio, and then the internet*. People's appraisal of the news media in general has not changed much over the past six months. However, their satisfaction with the radio has dropped after reaching a high point, and their dissatisfaction with news magazines continues to climb, to another record high since this survey series started in 1993. It is high time that our news magazines reflected on themselves what should be done. Another observation of our latest survey is that the importance of the internet continues to grow, slowly but steadily. One in ten people now take internet as their main source of news."
* The Chinese and English version of the commentary were inconsistent in the original release. The English version should prevail.
News about POP
POP's normal practice is to release the results of our regular surveys every Tuesday afternoon via our POP Site, except during public holidays, each time with a forecast of the items to be released in the next 7 days. According to schedule, our next regular release of regular survey findings will be November 14, 2006, Tuesday, between 1pm to 2 pm, when the latest popularity figures of CE Donald Tsang and Principal Officials under the accountability system will be released.
Our general practice is to answer all questions on the research design of the surveys published in the POP Site as soon as we receive them, but we will not further comment on the findings. We welcome questions for follow-up purpose, please email them to us at <[email protected]>. We will keep such an arrangement under constant review, suggestions most welcome. Please note that everything carried in the POP Site does not represent the stand of the University of Hong Kong. Dr Robert Ting-Yiu Chung, Director of POP, is responsible for everything posted herewith, except for column articles which represent the stand of their authors.
Starting from January 2006, we have included in our regular press releases a small educational section for the purpose of general civic education, so that we can share our experience with the general public. The subject of our education section today is "About HKUPOP".
About HKUPOP
Mapping people's appraisal of local news media
Since 1993, HKUPOP included people's appraisal of local news media into our tracking surveys as a credibility indicator of the media. The survey has different modules with different sets of questions. The development of the first module was introduced in the press release dated 17 October 2006. Now the development of the second module is as follows:
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In September 1993, our survey series started. The questions mainly focus on different news channels including television, radio, newspaper, magazines and the internet, and the wordings used being "Which of the following channels are your main source of news?", "When there is a conflict of information, which of the following news channels do you trust most?", "Are you satisfied with the performance of XX (respective news channels)?", and "Are you satisfied with the overall performance of the news media?"。 From the beginning to June 1997, surveys were conducted once every two months. It then stopped and replaced by another module of survey, in which the question "Are you satisfied with the performance of newspaper?" was kept in the three surveys of June 1998, September 1998 and September 1999. Later on the module stopped. From October 2000 onwards, this module of survey started again and its frequency was changed to once every six months. It has remained unchanged since then.
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Regarding sample size, from the beginning to June 1997, the sample size of the survey was set at slightly over 500, while beginning from October 2000, it was increased to at least 1,000.
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All findings have been published regularly on-line at our HKU POP Site since February 2004, while all previous findings published via our newsletter POP Express have also been uploaded in various formats.
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