Kenyans consume more news from social media – poll

Kenyans spend more time on social media for news consumption than traditional media, a survey has found.

The survey conducted by Radio Africa Group and released on November 13, indicates that Kenyans spend 2 hours and 24 minutes on social media.

According to data from the Communications Authority, the total Internet subscription in Kenya stood at 45.7 million in 2019.

The vast majority of them accessed the Internet via mobile phones.

Mobile phone is the mostly used device to access all social media platforms. 

According to the Radio Africa Group survey dubbed Kenya Media Research 2023, the time spent on social media is higher as compared to Radio medium which came second at 2 hours 10 minutes spent per day. 

In the report, there was a high incidence of news consumption on TV and radio, however, social media dominated in time spent overall.

Video streaming came in third with an average time spent of 2 hours 4 minutes and TV as a source of news stood at number four with one hour 59 minutes. 

Interestingly, Kenyans spent one hour 57 minutes on music streaming platforms, and digital audio files (podcasts) took position six with an average time of one hour 23 minutes. 

Other news websites, stood at number seven as the source of news with one hour 16 minutes average time. 

The survey had a sample size of 3,000 with a margin of error of +/- 1.8 per cent with a 95 per cent confidence level. 

"The sample split was guided by all adults aged 18 years and above proportionate to size as per the Kenya National Bureau of Statistics population census of 2019."