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Cristina Chi - Philstar.com
June 19, 2025 | 7:30am
MANILA, Philippines — Filipinos have one of the largest appetites for local news in the Asia Pacific, but most prefer to turn to social media platforms — not news outlets — for what they need to know, according to a global study on news consumption habits.
The latest Digital News Report by the Reuters Institute found at least four in 10 Filipinos are interested in local news. This level of interest is the highest among Southeast Asian countries part the study, tied with Indonesia, and the third highest in the region.
The report released Tuesday, June 17, drew its findings from an online survey of 97,055 respondents across 48 markets, including 2,014 adult Filipinos. The poll was conducted from mid-January to late February.
Data analyzed and shared to Philstar.com by Yvonne Chua, disinformation researcher and author of the Philippine report of the study, show that 39% of Filipinos said they are "extremely" or "very" interested in local news.
The proportion of local news interest in the Philippines jumps to 84% when it includes those who say they are "somewhat" interested.
Overall, the Philippines has the third highest proportion of those interested in local news in the Asia-Pacific region, ahead of six other territories: Hong Kong (35%), Singapore (33%), Japan (32%), Malaysia (32%), Thailand (30%) and Taiwan (21%).
In the Asia-Pacific, local news interest is highest in India (53%), followed by Australia (48%).
Accessing local news
More Filipinos also say they accessed local news or information in the past week than the average of all 45 markets in the study.
More than half of Filipino respondents (52%) said they had read or watched local news stories such as crime reports or accidents — slightly above the global average of 49%.
Those who accessed local political news in the Philippines were at 42%, higher than the global average of 32%.
Filipinos were also slightly more likely to have looked up local information services like weather updates or bus or train schedules in the past week (38% vs. global average of 37%).
Social media platforms over local outlets
This interest in local news, however, does not translate to actual consumption of the news produced by local news publishers and media organizations — increasingly a dying breed across regions.
When asked which source gives them the best local news and information, most Filipinos chose social media over newspapers, radio, or TV, in nearly all categories of information. Only general news and sports bucked the trend.
For instance, at least 50% of Filipino respondents said social media offered the best news on politics and governance, higher than the 37% who preferred to get this from actual news outlets whether in print or online.
The same holds across categories like local information services (50% vs. 37%), local activities (60% vs. 26%), things to buy or sell (54% vs. 23%), and even local notices (37% vs. 45%).
For general local news, news media and social platforms were tied, with 43% of respondents citing each as their preferred source.
It's only for local sports news that more Filipinos are turning to media outlets (37%) compared to platforms (33%), according to the study.
Overall, the study also shows that national and local media outlets are increasingly struggling to reach audiences and are continuing to lose ground to digital platforms.
Chua wrote in the Philippine report that since the country joined the study in 2020, online sources, including social media, have overtaken traditional media as Filipinos’ main source for news.
Only one in four Filipinos said they accessed news directly from a website or app, while the majority relied on social media (61%) and search engines (52%).
Compounding these challenges is Filipinos' high rate of news avoidance, which stood at 48%, placing the Philippines among the top 10 globally for this metric.
Closures of local papers
The report also points to a difficult year for print journalism, with one long-standing local paper folding entirely.
In June 2024, the Baguio Midland Courier — the longest-running English community newspaper in Northern Luzon — announced it would cease its operations. Its publishers cited rising operational expenses and dwindling readership.
Before this, in 2021, community paper Sunstar Baguio shut down after three decades of publication — a decision attributed to financial challenges exacerbated by the COVID-19 pandemic.
