Media ownership and access to it are prerequisites of media use. In 2019, 92 per cent of the Swiss households have been equipped with one or more television receivers (2009: 95%) and 69 per cent had one or more radio receivers (2009: 93%); 93 per cent of all households owned a computer (2009: 87%), 91 per cent a smartphone, and 47 per cent a tablet. In 2019, 93 per cent had access to the Internet (2009: 85%). As many as 47 per cent of the people surveyed lived in a household with a subscribed newspaper. This was significantly less than the 65 per cent who subscribed to newspapers in spring 2009 (Bonfadelli & Fretwurst, 2009; Fretwurst & Bonfadelli, 2019). Thus, ownership of media and media access are at a very high level in Switzerland, although there are still age-, education-, and income-related gaps in access to and use of the Internet and social media (Latzer et al., 2020).
Concerning general media use, for television, in 2009, citizens (3+) spent 145 minutes watching television every day in the German-speaking part of Switzerland, and 161 and 188 minutes in its French- and Italian-speaking parts, respectively (Monday–Sunday). This represented a daily reach of about 70 per cent, according to the data measured by Mediapulse. In 2019, the daily reach of televisiondecreased slightly, especially in the German- and French-speaking parts of Switzerland, but increased somewhat in the Italian-speaking part. This represents an overall decrease in daily television hours across all language regions. The drop of 20 per cent was more in the German- and French-speaking parts compared with 13 per cent in the Italian part of Switzerland (see Table 4). Based on a representative sample of personal interviews in 2019 (Bonfadelli & Fretwurst, 2009; Fretwurst & Bonfadelli, 2019), 62 per cent of viewers said they used SRG SSR’s public television programmes at least several times per week or almost daily – this amount had decreased from 77 per cent in 2009; whereas only 30 per cent viewed the programmes of the private regional television stations regularly in 2019, compared with 46 per cent in 2009.
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The market share of television by the public broadcaster SRG SSR was about a third in 2009 and decreased only slightly to 31 per cent in 2019. Almost two-thirds of the time spent by Swiss citizens in front of the television was devoted mostly to entertainment programmes by foreign television providers. Furthermore, only very few Swiss people watch television programmes from other Swiss language areas. The market shares of the private Swiss television stations still remained fairly low. In the last ten years, while it increased steadily from 6 to 10 per cent in the German-speaking part, it decreased slightly from the already low 1.7 per cent in 2009 to 1.6 per cent in 2019 in the French-speaking part, and from 1.7 per cent in 2009 to 1.5 per cent in 2019 in the Italian part of Switzerland for the only private station, Tele Ticino (Mediapulse, 2009, 2019).
In terms of radio, the daily reach in all language regions is even higher than television. However, it dropped between 2009 and 2019 from 91 to 83 per cent in the German part, from 89 to 80 per cent in the French part, and from 90 to 87 per cent in the Italian part of Switzerland (see Table 4). The time spent with radio today is about one and a half hours per day, but that decreased in the last ten years as well from 127 to 102 minutes in the German part, from 113 to 83 minutes in the French part, and from 115 to 101 minutes in the Italian part of Switzerland.
Contrary to television viewing, the radioprogrammesof SRG SSR predominated radio listening with a market share in 2009 of about two-thirds in the German and French part and with 84 per cent in the Italian part of Switzerland. But that saw a decline too in the last few years to 61 per cent in the German and French part, and 74 per cent in the Italian part of Switzerland in 2019. The private Swiss radio stations have a higher market share compared with the only minor significance of the private Swiss television stations. It rose from 28.8 per cent in 2009 to 35.6 per cent 2019 in the German part, from 22.3 per cent in 2009 to 29.6 per cent in 2019 in the French part, and even more in the Italian part of Switzerland, from 8.1 per cent in 2009 to 20.9 per cent in 2019, mostly by the local radio station 3iii.
In terms of press, the largest daily newspapers in Switzerland (see Table 5) show a fall in circulation and readership in the last ten years since 2010 for almost all titles. In a representative survey conducted in 2009 (Bonfadelli & Fretwurst, 2009), 55 per cent of the interviewed people said they were reading a newspaper without free-sheets and 24 per cent with free-sheets on a daily basis. That survey also showed that the Swiss spent 37 minutes per day reading print media. In the same follow-up survey in 2019, only 30 per cent reported reading a newspaper on a daily basis, and only 13 per cent were reading free-sheets daily. More men than women and the older, more educated population read newspapers more frequently. In addition, newspaper reading in 2019 was highest in the Italian part of Switzerland (35%), followed by the German (31%) and French (27%) parts.
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The loss of press advertising during the Covid-19 crisis, coupled with increased commercial pressures, stimulated parliamentary debates about an extension of governmental press aid. As a consequence, the Swiss Federal Council and the parliament are planning at the moment to increase the existing subsidising of the postal delivery of newspapers as indirect press aid.
In terms of online use, it is not surprising that the daily reaches, shown in Table 4, and the duration of daily use of the Internet have risen sharply since 2009: between two-thirds and even three-quarters of the respondents in French part of Switzerland are online every day, around 90 minutes, whereas over two-and-a-half hours in the Romandie.
Concerning news media use, Switzerland has a high level of interest in national and international news in general, with 42 per cent people having very strong interests and 46 per cent with rather strong interests (Fretwurst & Bonfadelli, 2019). Men, the older, and the more educated people expressed higher interest in daily news. Consequently, Werner A. Meier and colleagues (2011: 294) concluded in the 2011 MDM report: “Swiss citizens are generally well informed on political issues due to regular public debates on referenda”. It’s not necessarily because these political topics were covered and discussed by the Swiss news media. The 2011 MDM report also stated: “Radio and television, as well as newspapers are the main sources of information for Swiss citizens. However, the Internet has also turned into an important source of information” (Meier et al., 2011: 294). The Internet and social media were used by 63 per cent of citizens for functions like “socialising & casual news consumption” via WhatsApp and Facebook and by 39 per cent for “entertainment & news casually”. Another 39 per cent also gathered “news and information” via YouTube videos (fög, 2019: 12).
To sum up, the increasing importance of Internet platforms like Facebook, Instagram, or Twitter has fundamentally altered news consumption in the last few years. And reciprocally, the usage of traditional media brands like NZZ or Tages-Anzeiger has decreased and is obviously substituted by social media, especially among younger people. While interests and attention to news were still high in other European countries, with the exception of Southern Europe, social media was the more preferred news source over traditional media.
The comparison of empirical audience data between 2009 and 2019 documents these striking transformations(fög, 2019: 31–32). Over the years, the importance of traditional information media has gone down. The usage (often or very often) of television to gather information decreased from 75 per cent in 2009 to 50 per cent in 2019, for subscribed newspapers from 56 to 32 per cent, and for information of the free-sheets from 55 to 40 per cent. This loss of importance of the classical media was compensated for by a significant increase of digital news media: 52 per cent in 2009 to 61 per cent in 2019. With 70 per cent usage of social media as a news source in 2019, the Internet was now the most-often used for information gathering. Interestingly, only 15 per cent use blogs as information sources (fög, 2019: 10). In the World Internet Project – Switzerland (Latzer et al., 2020), 85 per cent people said they were using the Internet to search for news. To sum up, social media seems to be the most-common news source today. In addition, the usage of varied forms of media and online channels for news was also noticeable in so-called media repertoires. There was an increase of the “News Deprived” from 21 per cent in 2009 to 36 per cent in 2019. It was at 56 per cent in the age group 16–29, and the so-called global surfers increased from 17 to 25 per cent. For them, online and social media had become the most important source of news.
However, the Covid-19 crisis and the consequent lockdown in Switzerland from 16 March 2020 stimulated the use of broadcast news significantly. The reach of prime time television news by the SRG SSR increased from 37 per cent (2–15 March 2020) to 45 per cent (16–29 March 2020), and daily television consumption rate also jumped from 148 minutes to 179 minutes (Mediapulse, 2020).
In assessment, it can be said that, with the exception of Southern Europe, news use is still high in both Switzerland and most European countries. Around 80 per cent of the adult population are interested in and regularly use daily news. The older generation is still strongly oriented towards the traditional media. Television remains the leading medium, followed by radio and daily newspapers, with the importance of the press, in particular, declining in all countries. Meanwhile, the news content of these leading media organisations is increasingly accessed online or via smartphone by most users. The change in the media is particularly evident among young people between the ages of 15 and 25. On the one hand, interest in the traditional news media has declined and, on the other, the news is being used most by the young generation via social media (e.g., fög, 2019; Fretwurst et al., 2019).
In terms of trust in media and quality assessment of news media, surprisingly, the shift in news usage from traditional media to the digital public sphere have not impaired trust in the media. Disinformation or scepticism seemed to not be a problem in Switzerland until recently (Newman et al., 2019). Overall, 47 per cent of people trust the news and 55 per cent the “news I use”. However, only 17 per cent trust social media as reliable sources of information. The “Brand Trust Scores” are highest for the news produced by SRG SSR, followed by the quality newspapers NZZ in the German part of Switzerland and Le Temps in the French part. Only 27 per cent of the representative survey have stated they have come across “news with purposely forged facts”until now (e.g., Arlt, 2018).
In addition, two representative standardised opinion surveys asked media users in 2009 and 2019 to assess the quality of media used, based on different indicators (Bonfadelli & Fretwurst, 2009; Fretwurst et al., 2019). In general, the radio and television news of the SRG SSR got significantly better values than the private local radio programmes, and the private regional television programmes got the lowest scores. For 80 per cent or more, public radio and television programmes were professional and credible, and about two-thirds considered them balanced. Nevertheless, in 2018, 55 per cent of media users surveyed thought fake news was a problem in general (Fretwurst et al., 2018), whereas two-thirds considered fake news to become a major problem in the future (see Indicator F10 – Misinformation and digital platforms).
