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Results of the mid-June survey showed that, 80% and 78%* of the respondents claimed their main source of news was the television and the newspaper respectively, while 52% thought the news reported by the former channel was the most trustworthy. Regarding people's appraisal of various news channels, 76% of the respondents were satisfied with the television, whereas 60% 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 32% and 7% only. All in all, the latest satisfaction rate of the above news media in general was 56%.
* The percentages of respondents who claimed their main source of news was television and newspaper were 32% and 31% 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, but the internet now replaces radio as the third most important source, within a decimal margin based on the percentage of total responses*. Magazine remains at the 5th position. Although the difference between the internet and radio is not statistically significant, the upward trend of the internet coupled with the downward trend of traditional electronic media is very obvious. On the other hand, people's appraisal of the news media in general has surged for 7 percentage points compared to figure registered last October, reaching its record high since the handover. As for different news media, people's satisfaction with the television continues to top the list while their satisfaction with the radio has increased significantly, bouncing back to the level registered about one year ago. People's satisfaction with the newspaper is just fair while that with the magazine remains negative."
* 「Based on the percentage of total responses」 was not included in the original press release.
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 release of regular survey findings will be June 22, 2007, Friday, between 1pm to 2pm, when the latest findings of people's opinions towards Taiwan issues will be released. Then on June 26, 2007, Tuesday, between 1pm to 2pm, POP will release the latest findings of people's opinions towards ethnic identity.
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 and April 17, 2007while that of the second module has been listed in the press release of November 9, 2006. Today, we post the two modules again, so that the reader can refresh such development.
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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 are "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 until October 2006. Starting from June 2007, this module has been changed to once every year.
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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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