Most Active News Commenters Are in Their 30s... Those Aged 60 and Over Have Higher Trust in News

Korea Press Foundation 'Media Audience Survey' Results
Under 59 Trust MBC Most, 60 and Over Trust KBS Most

Among adults in South Korea, those in their 30s were found to be the most active age group in posting comments on internet news.

According to the '2023 Media Audience Survey' report by the Korea Press Foundation on the 9th, a survey conducted last year targeting 5,000 adult men and women nationwide aged 19 and older revealed that 8.6% of respondents in their 30s said they had posted comments on internet news within the past week, the highest among all age groups. For the same question, 5.9% of respondents in their 40s and 5.6% of those aged 19 to 29 said they had posted comments. The proportions of those in their 50s and those aged 60 and above who posted comments were 3.4% and 1.7%, respectively.

People in their 30s were also more active in sharing news than other age groups. Among respondents in their 30s, 8.4% said they had shared news via social networking services (SNS) or messengers in the past week, the highest among all age groups. This was followed by 7.0% of those aged 19 to 29, 3.8% of those in their 40s, 2.3% of those in their 50s, and 1.0% of those aged 60 and above.

The media outlet most trusted by all respondents was KBS (24.8%), followed by MBC (22.0%), YTN (10.4%), and Naver (8.0%). When broken down by age group, those aged 60 and above chose KBS as the most trusted media outlet, while MBC ranked first among all other age groups.

News Credibility by Source [Image Source=Korea Press Foundation '2023 Media Audience Survey' Report]

Respondents indicated that they trust news recommended by acquaintances more than current affairs information produced by individual YouTubers. When asked about their views based on the source of news or current affairs information, 28.4% of respondents said they trust news shared or recommended by acquaintances or people around them via social networking services (SNS) or messengers. Slightly fewer, 27.2%, trusted information recommended or arranged by portal sites or search engines, and only 18.4% trusted content produced by ordinary individuals (one-person creators) rather than media companies.

News and current affairs information were most trusted by those aged 60 and above. Among this group, 43.7% said they trust news and current affairs information, while only 10.7% said they do not trust it, making it the highest trust rate among all age groups. For other age groups, there was little difference in distrust, but the proportion who said they trust such information was in the mid-30% range, nearly 10 percentage points lower than that of those in their 60s.

The 2023 Media Audience Survey was conducted by the Korea Press Foundation through a commissioned survey by Gallup Korea from September 5 to October 22 last year, using face-to-face interviews with tablet PCs. The sampling error is ±1.4 percentage points (95% confidence level).

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.