Survey: Permanent residents use western new media at a higher frequency

A survey conducted by the Macao Media Research Center at the Macau University of Science and Technology (MUST) has shown that, in 2020, permanent residents of Macau used more new media sources designed in western countries than those who are not Macau permanent residents in the city, who spent more time on mainland new media.
Yesterday, the MUST Macao Media Research Center organized a meeting on its campus to release the results of a report called the “2020 Macau Residents’ New Media Usage Survey Report.”
Overall, the survey was intended to investigate Macau residents’ habits of using new media, as well as about the respondents’ political stances. The survey results contain feedback from both permanent Macau residents and those who are non-local residents.
Among the total 1,658 valid questionnaires, 1,125 respondents were Macau residents.
The researchers concluded that “permanent Macau residents use western new media at a higher frequency whereas, those who are not Macau permanent residents consume more mainland new media.”
In terms of consumption frequency, comparing the two groups, Macau permanent residents led in Facebook, YouTube, Instagram, Twitter and WhatsApp usage. Meanwhile, non-Macau permanent residents prefer WeChat, Zhihu, Weibo, and other mainland new media.
“Macau residents mainly use new media for communication and rarely reveal themselves [by posting] or report information,” the report says. The survey results show that 30.41% of Macau residents use new media for communication and socializing, 24.57% use new media to learn about their friends’ lives, and 25.68% of respondents never report information on these platforms.
“Macau residents’ new media participation consists mainly of ‘likes’. Comments, reports, and posts recorded a medium level of participation. Female respondents prefer to ‘like’, young people aged below 30 favor ‘like’ and repost, and people with income over 20,000 patacas prefer to repost.”
From the perspective of “news consumption,” the top three areas of focus for news consumed were current affairs, social news, and entertainment. Over 70% of the respondents frequently read the first two types of news, and less than 10% never do so.
“26.35% of the respondents always give attention to Macau local news,” the report noted.
According to the survey, respondents are spending more time on WeChat, YouTube, Facebook and Instagram and less time on Twitter and Line.