2. People’s usage of media From this chapter and onwards the findings from the survey will be presented. This chapter will outline how people obtain information about local issues and describe peoples’ usage of the various media available: television, newspaper and the internet. The usage of the radio will be dealt with separately in the following chapter.
2.1 Information about local issues Nepal does not have a long history of free and independent media. After the introduction of democracy in 1990, independent radio stations, television and newspapers started to mushroom and has ever since been an important ingredient in assisting people framing their perception of the world. A variety of media is accessible in RL’s broadcasting area, Rupandehi district. Four radio stations, three cable television operators, eleven newspapers and internet in urban areas is available. Yes 92.9% No 7.1% Table 1: Trust in information from media. 1,416 respondents.
According to findings a remarkable high percentage trusts the information they get from the media. A quite high number if we take into consideration independent media was severely challenged at the time the data for the survey was collected. In the survey we asked people what their main source of information on local issues is. Friends and family Newspaper Television Radio Internet Table 2: People’s main source of information about local
55.4% 23.1% 10.0% 9.5% 1.0% issues. 1,434 respondents.
Stories, news and rumours from friends and families still are the most important source of information for more than half of the respondents. Among the media options available, newspaper is the most used source, whereas only 10 percent utilises television and radio respectively. Although trust in the media is high, people still prefer accessing information from friends and family when it comes to issues of local content. For sure the instable political situation at the time data was collected also has influenced people’s answer.
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