Survey//More than Half of the Population Is Dissatisfied with the Media in the Republic of Moldova

In the Republic of Moldova, more than half of the country’s population is dissatisfied with the press. On the other hand, over 60% of citizens claim they feel informed about what is happening in the country in general. These are the conclusions from the national survey on the population’s perception of the media and media skills in the Republic of Moldova.

According to the survey data, 41% of the participants feel rather dissatisfied with the media in our country, and 16% declare they are very dissatisfied. On the other hand, 48% of the respondents say that they are largely informed about what is happening in the Republic of Moldova in general, and another 15% say they are very informed.

The authors emphasize that, though the percentage of respondents who were very satisfied with the quality of the media (6%) and those who felt deeply dissatisfied with it (16%) remained unchanged during the last three years, the share of participants who were more dissatisfied with the media in the country slightly increased. However, the share of people who feel very informed about the events in the country gradually decreases.

The participants in the discussions organized during the survey affirmed, among other things, that they did not search for news on purpose, but they were subscribed to specific online portals and read the latest news which appeared during the day. “Still, some participants say that sometimes, the news published on social networks is not enough, because it is urgent, the most important news, and in this case, they have to use the search engine intending to read more news than those in online sources they are subscribed to,” the survey also reveals.

The authors of the survey claim that all the participants in the discussion demonstrated that they were aware of a series of current topics, such as the war in Ukraine and its impact on our country, Igor Dodon’s release from home detention, and the anti-government protests organized by the Șor Party. As to such topics as power outages in the Republic of Moldova or the appointment of ministers, they are less known. “Most of those present at the discussion spoke out and affirmed the following: media consumers should independently decide which media product they consume, where they get the information from, how much they consume, and whether they want to be manipulated or not. On the other hand, an opinion was expressed, according to which foreign channels presumably had an intention to predetermine domestic media consumers’ behavior in favor of their country’s official position in their minds and perception,” the survey also mentions.

The Internews Moldova survey was conducted with the participation of 1374 respondents. The data were collected using qualitative and quantitative research methods from December 12, 2022, to January 13, 2023.