Fault Lines of the Public. Representative Survey on the Consumption of Political Information

At 8 p.m., the public broadcaster’s news, the Tagesschau, a few videos on TikTok on the way to university, the daily newspaper's website – there are many ways to find out about politics. The Konrad-Adenauer-Stiftung wanted to know more and investigated political information behavior in Germany in a representative survey.

Public television continues to be of great importance. More than half of the eligible voters in Germany regularly inform themselves about politics here. But daily newspapers in printed form and online are also a regular source of political information for two out of five. In addition, there is a whole range of other sources that are used by a quarter to a fifth: radio, social networks, private television or the news on the start screen of the browser. The ways in which people obtain political information are diverse.

Public service media reach many, but not all. The majority of eligible voters under the age of 40 do not use public broadcasters for political information. Instead, they receive news from a variety of other sources. In this group, there is a significant minority that regularly perceives political information exclusively in social media. This creates an age gap in the political public. For older people, public service media shape their political information, while for younger people, the sources are more inconsistent.

Overall, the credibility of public broadcasters is very high. Two-thirds of eligible voters consider public service media to be credible overall. However, this proportion has declined significantly in recent years.

The public service media have a credibility deficit, especially among people who do not see their views reflected in the reporting. Eligible voters who advocate for lower taxes coupled with reduced social benefits, prioritizing economic growth over climate protection, and stricter restrictions on immigration feel significantly less represented in public media. To a large extent, they also perceive the reporting as not credible. However, there are doubts about the credibility also among those who do not use public broadcasters.

Details on these questions and an analysis of how social media are used passively and actively, i.e. to comment and distribute one's own content, can be found in the publication ‘Bruchlinien der Öffentlichkeit. Repräsentative Umfrage zu politischem Informationsverhalten und der Bewertung von öffentlich-rechtlichen Sendern‘ by Jochen Roose and Jonas Schwarzenberger.

Please note, to date the analysis is only available in German.