Social networking sites lead as a source of information in Central Asia and messengers are gaining popularity as a source of information in the region, according to a survey conducted by the Institute for War and Peace Reporting (IWPR).

The survey entitled Consumption of Online News Items in Central Asia was presented in Dushanbe on September 11.

4,130 residents of Tajikistan, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan and Uzbekistan have been surveyed and twenty media experts from four countries have been interviewed on this subject.   

The survey results, in particular, show that that social networking sites lead as a source of information on the Internet in the Central Asian region.  The social networking sites are followed by news websites.

Messengers are reportedly in the third place, while in Uzbekistan, messengers are already ahead of news websites.

According to the survey, Facebook is a leading social networking site for receiving news in Tajikistan and Uzbekistan.

In Tajikistan, social problems, science and technology, domestic and foreign policy, education and economics are among the top five most reviewed themes. 

---

In Tajikistan, the main news exchange messengers are Viber and Telegram.

As far as Kazakhstan and Kyrgyzstan are concerned, their residents mostly read the news on Instagram. 

In Kazakhstan and Kyrgyzstan, the main news exchange messenger is WhatsApp.   

Meanwhile, Abakhon Sultonnazarov, IWPR Regional Director for Central Asia, told Kyrgyzstan’s online news agency 24.rg in an interview on September 5 that the survey is the first attempt to measure consumption of information on the Internet in the region.

“Proportion of users of social networking sites, news websites, messengers is growing in Central Asia.  At the same time, the amount of misinformation, manipulation, and fakes is increasing.  This causes concern about information literacy of both the population and journalists,” Sultonnazarov said, according to 24.rg.