Research, statistics and data

This blog provides some of the key findings from our new qualitative research about mis and disinformation, exploring the ways to navigate and mitigate its impact.

Ofcom’s latest research into UK adults’ news consumption across television, radio, print, social media and other websites or apps.

What good media literacy 'by design' looks like for social media, search, video-sharing and gaming services.

In December 2022, Ofcom commissioned 13 organisations to test and evaluate different approaches to improving media literacy skills among three cohort groups: children and young people; older adults, and; disabled people and people with learning disabilities. This report summarises the main challenges and lessons learned in terms of evaluating media literacy interventions.

Our research includes findings relating to parents’ views about their children’s media use, and the ways that parents seek to – or decide not to – monitor or limit use of different types of media.

This annual report looks at media use, attitudes and understanding, and how these change over time.

Ofcom’s regular research into adults’ media literacy gives detailed evidence on media use, attitudes and understanding among UK adults aged 16+.

A research project which follows 21 children, aged 8-18 since 2014, interviewing them on camera each year about their media habits and attitudes.

This report looks at media use, attitudes and understanding among children and young people aged 3-17.

This annual report looks at media use, attitudes and understanding, and how these change over time.

Ofcom's Adults' Media Lives study was set up in 2005 to provide a small-scale, rich and detailed qualitative complement to Ofcom's quantitative surveys of media literacy. The project follows the same 19 individuals over time, and interviews them on camera each year about their media habits and attitudes.

Ofcom's Making Sense of Media bulletin summarises media literacy activities by a range of organisations in the UK and overseas.

The Online Experiences Tracker is a quantitative tracking survey that examines people's attitudes to, and experiences of using online services.

The Wellbeing Comparison survey was undertaken by YouGov on behalf of Ofcom. The core objective of this study was to assess how UK Adults perceive their general satisfaction, worthiness, happiness and anxiety both in their personal lives and when they go online.

A teachable moment: opportunities, gaps and next steps from our review of Media literacy training for teachers.

Our Research, Evidence and Evaluation working group comprises academics and experts with a shared interest in a wide range of topics related to media literacy research and evaluation.

In this Economics Discussion Paper, we use NLP to classify the topic of each news article read by a sample of people who had their internet use tracked over one month in 2021.

We are looking at the state of local media in the UK, including how well it meets audiences' changing needs and expectations in an increasingly online world.

Online Nation is an annual report that looks at what people are doing online, how they are served by online content providers and platforms, and their attitudes to and experiences of using the internet.

Ofcom has commissioned research to understand people's experiences of using, and attitudes towards using video-sharing platforms (VSP).

This page provides the report, data, questionnaire and technical report from our quantitative research exploring mis and disinformation, carried out online from 27th June to 2nd July 2024 by YouGov, using respondents from YouGov’s online panel.

These discussion papers explore future technology trends and their implications for media literacy.

Social media is a significant aspect of daily life for most of us. Almost all adult internet users use some form of online communication platform.

This document details our progress since we published our last annual plan in April 2023. We are proud of all we have achieved over the last 18 months across a range of disciplines including policy, research, evaluation, commissioning activities for communities and working with platforms.

Media literacy has been an important part of Ofcom’s role since it was established in 2003 when the Communications Act directed Ofcom to research and promote media literacy across the UK. This publication marks a significant milestone as Ofcom’s first public articulation of a multi-year media literacy strategy in 20 years.

We wanted to find out if behavioural techniques could be used to increase the number of users accessing online terms and conditions (T&Cs). And does accessing T&Cs actually make a difference to how people behave online?

This paper discusses how to understand user choices, preferences and welfare in an online context.