Spanish News Consumption Habits during COVID-19

Next up at IAMCR 2023 are Aleix Martí and Roger Cuartielles, whose focus is on the circulation of information in Spain during the COVID-19 crisis. Legacy media as well as social media such as Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram played key roles in this infodemic. Social media in particular played a disintermediating role, enabling the further spread of mis- and disinformation.

The present project sought to explore the information consumption habits of Spanish news users, including the role of social media, the perception of disinformation, and the perception of official information channels. It approached this through a survey of some 1,000 Spanish citizens in May 2021.

TV was the key channel, followed by social media, and digital media; in aggregate, one quarter used social media and 72% used legacy media the most. This is very different depending on the age group, however: users under 25 mostly social media, and for users under 35 the balance was split. Overall, women also consumed more social media news. Social media were also more prominent amongst low- and middle-income users.

Some 80% of respondents said they’d come across disinformation – predominantly on Facebook, in legacy media, and on Twitter. Journalism’s performance was evaluated mainly as good (29%) or neutral (48%), while institutions were seen as either well prepared (35%) or badly prepared (40%) to communicate effectively. Civil protection and police forces were seen as better prepared, while more political organisations (such as the Interior Ministry) were seen more critically.

Sociodemographic factors like age, gender, and income level affected the use of social media; and Facebook was seen as the key vector for disinformation; younger users detected disinformation considerably less.