Here’s how ‘digital Indians’ are consuming news online – Times of India

Google News Initiative has unveiled the findings of a research conducted by Kantar in which it has listed the ways Indians are consuming news content online. It also captured the consumption preferences and behaviours of the online Indian language news consumer in India.
Kantar said it conducted research discussions across 16 cities, interviewed more than 4,600 Indians in 43 urban cities across 14 states from November 2022 until March 2023 and covered 8 Indian languages (Bengali, Gujarati, Hindi, Kannada, Malayalam, Marathi, Tamil and Telugu).
According to the findings of the report, titled “Indian Languages – Understanding India’s Digital News Consumer”, Indians use 5.05 online platforms on average to get news content.

YouTube most used source of news
The report said that in India, 93% of people said that they get their news from YouTube. The platform is followed by social media websites including Instagram and Facebook (88%), and instant messaging apps (82%). Search engines, like Google Search, take the fourth spot with 61% followed by published news apps/ websites (45%).
When it comes to 8 Indian languages, 65% rely on both publisher’s app/ website and news aggregators. Only 33% get news from the publisher’s app/ website.
Video most popular news format
The report also said that video is the most popular format for consuming news, regardless of language. However, when it comes to the 8 Indian languages, Marathi, Gujarati and Kannada speakers rely on text news. There are more audio news takers among Marathi and Malayalam-speaking consumers.

According to the findings, small-form and long-form content work in tandem in India. When it comes to engagement with video duration on YouTube, 25% always watch clips under 60 seconds while 19% always watch in-depth clips.
Misinformation or news?
Kantar report also highlighted that 1 in 5 Indian language users said that they encounter misinformation often, with Bengali and Marathi speakers claiming to do so with greater frequency.
About 80% – often (19%) and sometimes (61%) of people claimed that they come across news that looks suspicious and is difficult to tag as real or misinformation. It also pointed out that 43% of news spread via WhatsApp or word of mouth is not found on any news website/ app.

Respondents said that about 40% of news about big incidents is not heard from anyone else around, 38% is repetition/ resurfacing of old news as a current happening/ event and 37% is sensationalised news.