Nearly three in four Chinese use microblogs for latest news, information: Survey

Beijing, Aug 25 (ANI): A majority 73.5 percent of Chinese, thats three in four, use microblogs to receive the latest news and information, according to a survey conducted by the China Youth Daily newspaper.

According to Xinhua, 66.6 percent use them to participate in online discussions. Some 52.1 percent of respondents use microblogs to keep in touch with friends.

The survey also showed that 73.7 percent of respondents consider microblogs as an "important" source of news because it widely distributes information in short span of time.

"I opened a microblog account a month ago and found it interesting and useful.ow, I do not have to go to news websites because I can get all news I am interested in from other microblogs," Ding Jie, an employee of the China International Publishing Group, said.

If we go by the results of the survey, 56.5 percent of respondents "generally believed" information on microblogs while 23.2 percent of them were uncertain about the credibility of the information. Some 20.3 percent of respondents thought the information was unreliable.

Professor Kuang Wenbo of the Journalism School of Renmin University of China said that microblogs are grassroots media that anyone can publish information upon.

"Microblogs can only serve as a supplement to traditional media," Kuang added. (ANI)