WhatsApp is used for reading and discussing relevant news
The popular messenger WhatsApp is now used as a news source. With the help of the app, users search for, read and discuss breaking news. At the same time, the level of loyalty to traditional mass media has decreased substantially.
Reasons for using WhatsApp differ depending on the country. In particular, the messenger is used for reading news by 50% of respondents in Malaysia, 5% - in Great Britain and 3% - in the US.
The Reuters Institute for the study of Journalism on the request of BBC and Google conducted a survey in 34 countries to find out the most popular messenger for chatting and reading news. It has turned out that Facebook (though, it is still the top one), is gradually losing its ground. YouTube and Kakao Talk are dominating in the developed countries of Asia. WhatsApp is popular in other countries.
There are several reasons for growing popularity of WhatsApp:
- The use of End-to-End Encryption makes it impossible even for intelligence agencies to read messages.
- The countries of Latin America provide their citizens with an unlimited Internet traffic for using the messenger.
- Mass media in Spain and Chile encourage people to read their news in WhatsApp.
Besides, one of the main reasons for reading news in messengers is a distrust of traditional mass media. For instance, according to Digital News Report, citizens of Great Britain blame BBC for supporting the decision to stay in EU and subjective coverage of the situation. The media industry in Europe and Asia is also too close to authorities, that’s why it is difficult to consider lots of news objective.
