Social media Eurobarometer: Television remains main information source in Romania too

An opinion poll made by Eurobarometer in June 2025 on social media, whose results were released in October, shows that 66% of respondents are using traditional mass media to follow social and political topics, while 59% of respondents use other digital sources.   At European level, 71% indicated television as the information source used. For young people between 15 and 24 years of age, the most used source is social media platforms (65%).   While 42% of people interviewed consider that television has become the most important for them in the past year, 25% see the increased importance of social communication platforms.   The results of the study point out a combination of active and passive data consumption in social media, many users looking for contents (66%), while 76% are unexpectedly meeting it during occasional navigation.   Poll respondents interact with the social and political content on social media, mainly by reading or looking at feed content (38%) or appreciate or react to posting. (36%). As for being exposed to and answering disinformation , 66% of respondents considered they had been exposed to disinformation and fake news at least randomly in the last 7 days.   Although 61% feel confident they can recognize disinformation when meeting it, about three out of ten do not trust their own capacity of recognizing disinformation. Over a third of respondents (37%) indicated they were following influencers or content creators. Among respondents who follow content creators, 39% followed their reviews and 38% comments on social and political topics.   About formats preferred for political content on social media platforms, 22% indicated they followed what was happening in European politics, most often, while 44% do it “from time to time.”   Among people who indicated they used social media to be updated about current social and political topics, 46% declared they preferred short posts based on text, while 41% like short videoclips. Also, 47% prefer videoclips deeply exploring topical subjects, 44% interviews with experts, while 42% appreciate interviews with common people or citizens affected by topics approached.   As for Romania, the question about sources used to obtain data about social and political topics, television ranked first with 72% for domestic socio-political subjects and 71% for those about EU politics.   For 85% of respondents from the 55+ category, television is information source for domestic socio-political topics, while 82% of people interviewed from the same category are using television to be updated with the EU policy.   The second most frequent answer were search engines (Google Search or Bing), used by 52% Romanians interviewed to be updated with what is happening at home and 40% what is happening in EU.   The third most used information means identified were social media platforms (like Instagram, TikTok, Facebook, X, a.o) used by 48% of Romanians interviewed to be updated with what is happening at home and 40% of what is happening in EU.   The question referring to how often sources are used to follow socio-political topics, the Romanians' answers showed, about traditional media (offline and digital services of tv stations, of newspapers, radio stations, etc.) several times a day for domestic content (39%) and EU content (37%).   Answers for other digital sources (like social media platforms, video or streaming platforms, blogs, online news portals, etc.) were 38% and 35% respectively. The question about personal exposure to disinformation and fake news in the last 7 days, 23% have affirmative answer about socio-political subjects at domestic level and 12% for EU topics.   The to of social media platforms where Romanians get data about social and political news were Facebook, 76% for domestic subjects and 58% for EU subjects, as well as Youtube with 66% for domestic topics and 57% for EU topics.   About following influencers on social media channels (Youtube, Instagram, TikTok) 47% of Romanians said they follow these categories for domestic socio-political topics and 37% follow EU topics.   The opinion poll was made in EU member states over June 11-18 2025, on a sample of people above the age of 15, through online interviewes where attitudes toward key topics, customs and information sources, ways of using social communication platforms and social communication and preferences for data about current affairs, answers to disinformation and confidence for messangers, interaction with influencers and content creators, the audience and preferences for institutional accounts and political content, such as preferred formats and content type for political data.   Survey resuts were published on the website: https://europa.eu/eurobarometer/surveys and were presented in Sibiu by Stephen Clark, the director of the European Parliament Connection Offices in EU, at a dialogue-debate with Lucian Blaga University students.