Majority of Indians rely on TV, compared to Newspapers

Vivek Ranjan - Televisionpoint.com
Majority of Indians rely on Television, when compared to Newspapers or Magazines when it comes to News. 57 per cent of Indian News Audience prefer television as a primary source for news, five times as popular than newspapers, a sample survey conducted by the National Council of Applied Economic Research, NCAER said.

About 3.5 lakh people in villages and towns, were questioned in the study commissioned by the Indian National Science Academy to gauge the state of science education and public attitude towards science and technology. Even the most literate's rely on TV far more than they do on the written word. 41 per cent of illiterates mainly switch on the TV for information, the figure is 65 per cent for graduates. Forty-eight per cent of Indians who watch TV do so on a daily basis, 87 per cent in urban areas, 31 per cent in rural areas, but just 32 per cent read the newspapers everyday.

Newspapers are most popular in Kerala, 40 per cent of urban Keralites get their news mainly from newspapers. But even here, 58 per cent, list TV as their major source of news.

Radio is the main news source for 13 per cent of Indians, higher than the 11.7 per cent figure for newspapers. But there are big disparities between the regions. In the south, a little more than three per cent of people tune in mainly to radio for news, while in the east, it is the main source for 25 per cent.