Filipinos consuming less news, not switching platforms — analyst

MANILA, Philippines — The latest Digital News Report on the Philippines suggests that many Filipinos are consuming less news overall, a data scientist said.

Released by the Reuters Institute for the Study of Journalism this week, the report provided a look at the “profound transformation” of news consumption over the past six years.

Between 2020 and 2026, weekly television news use fell from 66 percent to 42 percent, newspaper readership declined from 22 percent to 10 percent, radio use dropped from 25 percent to 14 percent, and news website use fell from 60 percent to 42 percent.

Article continues after this advertisement

READ: Most Filipinos rely on social media for news — Reuters study

FEATURED STORIES

NEWSINFO

NEWSINFO

NEWSINFO

Conversely, social media remained largely the same, moving only from 68 percent to 70 percent.

For Dr. Alicor Panao, Inquirer data scientist and associate professor at the University of the Philippines, “at first glance, these figures suggest audiences are abandoning traditional media in favor of social media.”

However, he pointed out that “if that were the case, the data do not add up” because while traditional news sources collectively lost tens of percentage points over the period, social media gained only two.

RELATED STORY: How to handle online misinformation

Article continues after this advertisement

“This suggests that many Filipinos are not switching platforms but consuming less news overall,” Panao said.

The Philippines mirrors a broader Reuters Institute observation that social media’s growing role in news stems from the faster decline of traditional sources rather than a shift to new platforms.

Article continues after this advertisement

Panao said what makes the Philippine case particularly noteworthy is the absence of a clear successor to the declining news ecosystem.

By 2026, podcasts and AI chatbots each reached only 9 percent of Filipinos, far too small to compensate for the losses experienced by television and news websites.

“The evidence therefore points to something more fundamental,” Panao said.

“People increasingly encounter news incidentally through digital platforms. Social media persists not because demand for news is increasing but simply because it is embedded in everyday online activity,” he said.

READ: Beyond clicks: How social media builds purpose in news

For Panao, taken together, these patterns suggest not substitution but a steady weakening of direct news consumption.

Steepest decline

Based on the latest edition of the Digital News Report, trust in news dropped by 10 points this year to only 28 percent, marking the steepest decline among countries covered by the report.

Worldwide, the institute said trust in news fell in 29 of 48 markets, resulting in an overall drop to the lowest recorded level since it started looking at trust in 2015.

“Some of this worldwide drop in trust reflects wider anxieties beyond the news industry — trust in institutions and leaders is widely declining, and journalism is also often under direct attack from high-profile politicians,” it said.

RELATED STORY: Tradition, tech, trust: Recipe for media’s endurance

Despite this, however, “trust in the most widely used individual news brands is holding up better than trust in news overall.”

Your subscription could not be saved. Please try again.

Your subscription has been successful.

In 2026, Inquirer was the second most trusted media brand at 61 percent, next to GMA Network at 66 percent. /dm