Radio remains the most-used source of news in many African countries - Report

Despite audience gains for television and digital media, radio is still by far the most frequent information source for Africans, a new Afrobarometer analysis suggests.

Released on the occasion of World Radio Day (13 February), the analysis is based on Afrobarometer surveys in eight African countries in 2017.

While radio still leads the pack, a previous Afrobarometer report shows television, the Internet, and social media gaining ground.

Key findings of the report include:

Across eight African countries surveyed in 2017, three-fourths (74%) of respondents have a radio in the household, compared to 43% who have a TV (Figure 1).

Almost two-thirds (63%) of respondents say they get news “every day” or “a few times a week” from radio, compared to 35% for TV and 12% for newspapers (Figure 2). Côte d'Ivoire is an exception: TV outpaces radio as a regular news source, 55% vs. 47%.

In all eight surveyed countries, radio is a more frequent information source for men than for women (Figure 3). Except in Côte d'Ivoire, it is a more popular news source in urban than in rural areas (Figure 4).

Afrobarometer

Afrobarometer is a pan-African, non-partisan research network that conducts public attitude surveys on democracy, governance, economic conditions, and related issues across more than 30 countries in Africa. Six rounds of surveys were conducted between 1999 and 2016, and Round 7 surveys (2016/2018) are currently underway.

Afrobarometer conducts face-to-face interviews in the language of the respondent’s choice with nationally representative samples that yield country-level results with margins of error of +/-2% (for samples of 2,400) or +/3% (for samples of 1,200) at a 95% confidence level.

See below full details of the analysis.