Same Percentage Of People Rely On Social Media And Television For Malta’s Election Content – But Many Aren’t Watching
Maltese voters have equally chosen both social media and television as the two main sources for gathering information on the electoral campaign. However, a large minority of people are simply unengaged with the election.
In a Misco survey commissioned by Lovin Malta, respondents were asked what media they are using to follow the general election in Malta. 47% mentioned television and another 47%, the same percentage, mentioned social media as their main source.
Still, almost 17% of respondents said that they are not even following the current election, to begin with, highlighting the disinterest that many seem to have in this campaign and politics in Malta in general.
It also doesn’t come as any surprise that social media achieved more mentions amongst persons aged under 45 years, with social media being more* popular with younger generations.
Television, on the other hand, achieved more mentions among persons aged 45 years and older, which again is understandable given the majority of older generations still rely on television, with many of them not even having access to social media.
As for other mediums, 10% mentioned that they utilise news websites in order to obtain information and updates.
7% of respondents mentioned radio as their main source, and only 6% mentioned newspapers, making it the lowest category and the medium which is seemingly getting more wiped out by the minute.
The reasons behind the shift from television to social media are varied. However, the absence of engaging debate is leaving its mark.
After the loss of engaging discussion programs like L-Erbgħa Fost il-Ġimgħa and Xarabank, Maltese TV is no longer the voice for debate.
Even the shift of TVM 2 to TVM News+, making it strictly a news channel, is not helping, with figures showing that viewership numbers on TVM News+ are absolutely abysmal.
Since Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, an interest in local and international media organisations has been noted, with people seemingly seeking a lot of their information from them.
Meanwhile, during the entirety of the ongoing electoral campaign, the Nationalist Party came out swinging, with an increase in posts while Labour have a higher following online.
Both Bernard Grech and the Nationalist Party have published considerably more posts on both Facebook and Instagram than Labour or Abela. They have also seen more engagement than their political opponents, which is a first, given that the Labour Party dominated social media during the last two administrations.
On the other hand, the Labour Party and Robert Abela have overall registered significantly more likes, comments, and shares on their social media platforms.
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This survey was conducted among a random sample of 457 respondents between the 9th March and 11th March. Interviews were conducted on the telephone by trained interviewers under the direct supervision of MISCO coordinators. Respondents were selected using the random digit dialling method. A total of 574 persons were contacted to achieve a sample of 457 respondents.
A sample of 457 provides a margin of error within ±4.7%. However when one applies the weighting efficiency resulting from the weighting of the data by age, gender and region, the margin of error increases to ±5.4%. The weighting efficiency is the amount of skewing that had to be done to align the sample to the actual population data.
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