More people in the UK now access news online than on television, according to new survey data from the media regulator, Ofcom. This is the first time Ofcom’s annual news consumption poll found online media use ahead of TV news.
The immediate press reaction to the survey suggested television is in terminal decline, with online media replacing TV news. Ofcom itself pitted one format against another by declaring in the study’s headline: “TV loses its crown as main source for news.”
Yet rather than the survey reflecting a “generational shift” in audience behaviour, the truth is it has been going on for decades.
