Norwegian media barometer

Updated: 26 April 2023

Next update: 14 May 2024

Proportion who read internet newspapers on an average day
Proportion who read internet newspapers on an average day
2022
64
%
Use of different media an average day
Use of different media an average day1
Per cent
1991200020212022
Printed newspapers84772221
Internet paper2 ....5964
Television81824647
Radio71574749
Audio media43505857
Weeklies211747
Books24202126
Magazines181458
Cartoons11936
Video media3 10105251
Internet..279393
1The numbers before 2022 apply to those in the 9-79 age group. As of 2022, there is no upper age limit.
2Until and including 2021, this only applied to the online version of paper newspapers. From and including 2022 it applies to all online newspapers
3Includes streaming via Internet
Explanation of symbols

Selected tables and charts from this statistics

  • Usage of traditional and internet media an average day
    Usage of traditional and internet media an average day1 2
    2022
    Per cent
    Newspaper21
    Internet paper64
    Papers in total73
    Radio0
    Internet radio0
    Radio in total49
    Television47
    Internet TV33
    TV in total65
    Book26
    Electronic book4
    Books in total29
    Magazines, perodicals etc.8
    Internet magazines, perodicals etc.8
    Magazines in total11
    Weeklies7
    Internet weeklies4
    Weeklies in total10
    Cartoons6
    Internet cartoons4
    Cartoons in total9
    1The total figures of each type of medium are not a sum of the two subgroups. This is because some have used both subgroups (f.ex. both newspaper and internet paper) during the same day.
    2The numbers before 2022 apply to those in the 9-79 age group. As of 2022, there is no upper age limit.
    Printed newspapers was mistakingly posted without values, this was corrected 26 April 2023 at 08.00.
    Explanation of symbols

About the statistics

The statistics contain data about the use of various media such as newspapers, TV, radio, internet, video media, sound media, gaming, books, magazines, cartoons and access to these.

Not relevant

Age

Respondents are grouped by age at the end of the year in which the interviews were completed.

Occupational status

The grouping of occupations are different from 2015 and onward, it builds upon the "Standard for yrkesklassifisering (STYRK-08)"

Occupation group 1-2: (1) Administrative leaders and politicians, (2) Academic professions.

Occupation group 3: Occupation with shorter college and university education and technicians

Occupation group 4-5: (4) Office and customer service occupation, (5) Business, service and caretaking occupation

Occupation group 6-9: (6) Farming, forestry and fishery, (7) Craftsmen etc., (8) Process- and machine operator and transport workers etc., (9) Occupation without any demand for education

In occupation 0: Military education and no registration, the rank and file are classified in education group 9, Officers 1 are classified in occupation group 3 and Officers 2 ar classified in occupation group 1-2 .

Other statuses: Includes those who do not belong in any of the other categories.

The classification is otherwise based on Standard for inndeling etter sosioøkonomisk status (Standard for norsk statistikk nr. 5). Socioeconomic status is calculated for the age group 16-79 years.

Education

Level of education is calculated on the basis of information about all-round education and vocational training. The classification is built on "Standard for utdanningsgruppering i offentlig norsk statistikk (Standarder for norsk statistikk nr. 7)".

Education is calculated for the age group 16-79 years. The following classification is used:

Primary and lower secondary education : Includes 1.- 10. class.

Upper secondary education : Includes secondary education 11.-13. class and vocational school.

Tertiary education, short : Includes higher education four years or shorter.

Tertiary education, long : Includes higher education more than four years.

Name: Norwegian media barometer
Topic: Culture and recreation

14 May 2024

Division for Education and Culture Statistics

Representative for the population of Norway, numbers are also published for region and degree of urban/rural area.

Annually

None

Not relevant

The yearly survey was conducted for the first time in 1991 and has been continued annually with updates to mirror the constant change in people's use of media. Previously, Statistics Norway has conducted listening and viewing surveys for Norwegian Broadcasting Corporation since the latter part of the 1960s. There have also been some questions in the living condition surveys about culture use since the 1970s.

Major users have been Ministry of Culture and the Norwegian Media Authority. The Norwegian Media Authority is responsible for financing the survey through the annual Fiscal Budget. Institute for Journalism has used the data frequently and the data are much used in the media industry.

The data is specially used to present timelines of the use of media over the years.

No external users have access to the statistics and analyses before they are published and accessible simultaneously for all users on ssb.no at 08:00 am. Prior to this, a minimum of three months' advance notice is given in the Statistics Release Calendar. This is one of Statistics Norway’s key principles for ensuring that all users are treated equally.

The media use survey is an independent survey and can not be directly connected to other statistics.

Volunteer

None

The population is a representative sample of the Norwegian population at the age of 9-79 years. All persons who join the survey are interviewed about their media use and access to units and media services. The interviews for the media survey lasts approximately 20 minutes.

The media survey is an independent survey. Background information is added from SSBs registers regarding education, work, income and so forth.

Untill the survey completed in 2021, a yearly national representative sample was selected of around 3000 persons between the age of 9-79 years. The net sample waries yearly depending on the response rate.

Starting in 2022 the survey will include those older than 79 years old, so that the survey will continue to be conducted without an upper age limit.

The sample size has also been expanded from 3000 til 6000 individuals starting 2022.

Telephone interview by CATI.

The data collection is made by use of computer-assisted interviews. Several procedures for electronic control of the registration of answers are included in the questionnaire. In some cases the interviewer gets a "warning" when recording an answer outside of set parameters, in other cases maximum values have been set beforehand that cannot be exceeded. Only valid answer categories are allowed.

Starting in the datacollection in 2022, the survey includes a self administered web form that the repsondents can choose to fill in, instead of a phone interview.

Not relevant

All employees at Statistics Norway have to respect professional secrecy and confidentiality. The survey is conducted under legal rules and Statistics Norway is subject to both the Norwegian data supervision and the internal safety deputy. It will never be known outside Statistics Norway what kind of answers an individual respondent has given.

In large degree there's possible to compare the yearly data from 1991, but when there is deviation in comparability, it is mentioned in the publications.

For the datacollection conducted in 2022 there has been a largely revised questionnaire used, sp somewhat less comparability in some subjects can be expected.

The gross sample is drawn in order to reflect the whole population, however, because non-response differs unequally in the different categories used, the net sample will not be fully representative. This bias will vary for different groups and variables in question. In order to adjust for some of the biases that the net sample in relation to the gross sample, figures in the tables are weighted. The following variables are included in the weighting for non-response: Gender, age, education and family size.

The uncertainty of the findings based only a part of the population is often called sampling variance. Standard deviation is a measure of this uncertainty. The size of standard deviation depends, among other factors, on the number of observation in the sample, and on the distribution of the current variable in the whole population.

Statistic Norway has not made exact calculations to compute standard deviation for the findings. However, in table 1, the approximate size of standard deviation is given for observed percentages.

To illustrate the uncertainty associated with a percentage, we can use an interval to give the level of the true value of an estimated quantity (the value obtained if making observation on the whole population instead of observation based on a part of the population). Such intervals are called confidence intervals if constructed in a special way. In this connection one can use the following method: let M be the estimated quantity, and S the estimate of standard deviation of M. The confidence interval will be an interval with limits (M - 2*S) and (M + 2*S).

This method will give, with approximately 95 per cent probability, an interval containing the true value.

The following example illustrates the use of table 1 for finding confidence intervals: The estimate of standard deviation of 70 percent is 1.0 when the estimate is based on 2000 observations. The confidence interval for the true value has limits 70 +- 2*1.02, which means the interval, is from 72 to 68 per cent.

Table 1. Standard deviation in per cent

Number of observations

Observed percentages

5(95)

10(90)

20(80)

30(70)

40(60)

50(50)

25

4,4

6,0

8,0

9,2

9,8

10,0

50

3,1

4,2

5,7

6,5

6,9

7,1

100

2,2

3,0

4,0

4,6

4,9

5,0

250

1,4

1,9

2,5

2,9

3,1

3,2

400

1,1

1,5

2,0

2,3

2,4

2,5

800

0,8

1,1

1,4

1,6

1,7

1,8

1 000

0,7

0,9

1,3

1,4

1,5

1,6

1 500

0,6

0,8

1,0

1,2

1,3

1,3

2 000

0,5

0,7

0,9

1,0

1,1

1,1

2 500

0,4

0,6

0,8

0,9

1,0

1,0

Not relevant

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