This year’s Digital News Report offers some interesting insights into the consumption of online news videos. Participants were asked about their habits with both short news videos (a few minutes or less), as well as longer form videos. One thing that is evident in the report is that online video is an increasingly popular way Australians receive their news.
Each week 54% of Australians watch short online news videos at least once and 38% watch long form online news videos at least once a week. There are differences between generations with Australians under the age of 59 watching more online news videos than older generations. Around 20% of Gen X, Millennials, and Post-millennials watch short online news videos at least once per day.
The DNR reveals interesting insights into where people are going for online news video content. Of the people who watch short-form online news video content, most people (55%) go to the websites or apps of news organisations. This is followed by YouTube (49%) and Facebook (41%). Instagram is used by 19% of Australian news video watchers. TikTok, the dedicated short-form video platform, is where only 14% of respondents say they go for online news videos.
For those who watch long-form online news videos, YouTube is the platform of choice for three-fifths (59%) of Australians. This is followed by the websites or apps of news organisations (50%). Almost 40% of Australians go to Facebook for long-form news videos and 18% go to Instagram. Surprisingly, 11% of participants in the DNR survey said they go to TikTok for long-form news content. It is surprising considering the maximum video length on TikTok is only ten minutes and most videos on the platform are well under that, not exactly ‘long-form’.
The popularity of YouTube as a place for long-form news could be insightful for major Australian news corporations. Most YouTube videos from major news outlets are well under five minutes long and they drastically underperform compared to the much longer videos from independent youtubers with similar subscriber counts.
On social media platforms, mainstream news organisations have a lot of competition for the attention of the online news video audience. This shows in the DNR’s data on news video sources. For Australians consuming online news videos on YouTube, less than half (48%) watch mainstream journalism. On Instagram, 46% of Australians get their news from mainstream journalism sources while on TikTok, 53% of Australians get their news from ‘ordinary people’ and only 39% get their news from mainstream journalism sources.
The online news media environment is highly competitive and is made up of numerous digital platforms and a plethora of media creators. In this context it is important to understand what news consumers want, and where they want it.
Chris Hall, HDR Student