Center for Media Research – Nepal marked the World Press Freedom Day 2013 by releasing the summary of the preliminary findings of the Nepal Twitter Users Survey.

The Day is being marked around the world in theme: “Safe to Speak: Ensuring Freedom of Expression in All Media” that also include the free and nonrestrictive access to Internet.

Nepal Twitter Users Survey 2013

(Preliminary Report Highlights)

* Please note that the highlights presented in this document is based on the preliminary data analysis of the survey. The final report may be slightly different.

THE SURVEY

The survey was conducted online in March, 2013. A total of 1,008 responses were received, out of which only 625 complete responses were considered valid and analyzed.

DEMOGRAPHIC INFORMATION OF RESPONDENTS

Out of 625 respondents, 13% were females and 87% were males.

Most of the Twitter users are between 20 to 35 years old (86%). More than 35% are of 26 to 30 years old, 31% are of 20 to 25 years old, and 20% are 30 to 35 years old. The number of teen-age users is 4% whereas 11% were more than 35%.

27% of Twitter users is employed or freelancing professionals followed by 16% of those falling int he group of journalist/advocate/activist; 27% of students, 13% privately employed and

SUMMARY OF THE FINDINGS

  • One in 10 people maintain multiple Twitter accounts.
  • Three-fourth of Nepali Twitter users tweets from within Nepal – most from Kathmandu (68%) followed by Lalitpur (7%), Bhaktapur (4%), Chitwan (3%) and Kaski (2%).
  • Among the Twitter users tweeting from outside Nepal, most reside in USA / Canada (20%), Europe (16%), India (12%) and Arab countries (12%).
  • Three out of four Twitter users use both Nepali and English language while tweeting while around 12% tweets in Nepal and 12% in English.
  • 15% of Nepali Twitter users have never uploaded photo on Twitter. Only 7% of those uploading photo do it regularly otherwise two-third of users uploading photos do it rarely.
  • Most popular topic to tweet are: social issues (44%), interesting news (42%), political (37%), issues related to profession (26%) and media issues (23%). But mostly Twitter users tweet anything they find ok to tweet (48%).
  • Most Twitter users use it for news and information (85%), to understand public opinion on current news (59%), for gossiping (56%), to express feeling (50%), for networking (46%), for professional works (31%) and to spend leisure time (30%).
  • Most Twitter users believe (89%) that Twitter is a strong medium of communication.
  • More than 71% of Twitter users believe that Twitter can bring social and/or political changes while 12% disagree that.
  • More than 71% users disagree that Twitter is nothing serious and is just for fun. Only 14% believe that it is just for fun.
  • Many users (43%) believe many users are using Twitter in wrong ways.
  • 84% of users believe celebrities and politicians can benefits by joining Twitter and they should join the micro-blogging platform.
  • 36% of users either do not believe or are neutral on Twitter’s status as public opinion platform.
  • The psychology of Twitter users:
    • 19% don’t feel good when someone doesn’t follow back.
    • 42% don’t like when the person they mention doesn’t reply.
    • 24% believe those who follow a few are proud.
    • 68% don’t care about retweets/favorites.
    • 64% follow a few good users and read many of their tweets.
    • 63% feel gratified when others follow or retweet or mention them.
    • 69% like to write good tweets than tweets that may increase their followers.
    • 59% retweet almost all tweets they like.

More about World Press Freedom Day at UNESCO website & download the summary of preliminary findings in PDF.