Almost half of all Australians rely on radio for news

A new study by Roy Morgan has found that 9.2 million or 45.5% of Australians use radio as a “main source of news”.

That placed radio as the second-most nominated source of news after television, which was nominated as a main news source by 11.7 million (65.6%) of Australians.

Printed newspapers were nominated by 31.1% while news websites and apps were selected by 27.3%.

The study also found that television is Australia’s “most trusted” news source, with 36.7% of Australians saying they trusted television news the most, followed by radio in second spot with 15.9%.

Social media was shown to be the least trusted media news source.

Roy Morgan also discovered that the popularity of traditional news sources is increased significantly with age, with 80% of Baby Boomers and 70.7% of Generation X nominating free to air television as a main news source.

In contrast, 49.8% of millennials and 41.1% of Generation Z nominated TV.

“In our increasingly digital world it’s easy to assume ‘traditional media’ are largely a thing of the past,” said Roy Morgan CEO Michele Levine.

“This new research, which specifically focuses on the use of, and trust in, news sources shows that TV remains one of the main sources of news for the majority of Australians. And that large numbers of Australians continue to rely on radio and newspapers for their news.”