Review of public opinion preferences regarding digital platforms and conventional media as a source of information

Abstract

The emergence of ICTs (Information and Communication Technologies) in our lives has given us the opportunity to expand the ways we communicate, stay informed, and interact through search engines, social media, internet platforms, television, radio, telephones, and messaging apps. Not all of us choose the same medium for our information, and the various studies analysing these technologies show us consumer trends. Conventional media must reinvent themselves if they want to survive the advance of digital options, which don't always offer the best information, as we will see in the surveys conducted by various institutions consulted. We have a wide range to choose from, but we are also exposed to misinformation, propaganda, advertising, and information overload. There are more channels with less verification of the veracity of news, more opinion than information, and plagiarism, without citing the source, has multiplied. Consumers' choice of when consulting information is not always arbitrary. The platforms we use already know what type of digital content we use through their feeds. Furthermore, the media face fierce competition to capture audiences and maintain the loyalty of the public—those who read, listen, or watch them—and it is they, in the interest of retaining those consumers, who determine what is and what is not important to the public. We will see that digital platforms are widely accepted but also generate scepticism among users who do not see their privacy protected when providing their personal data. Although the transfer of our data is subject to regulations, which we discuss in this paper, these are not always enforced by companies. We have analysed and compared the most recent reports on these issues to see what public opinion holds about these platforms and how they have evolved.