JOIN US IN STIRLING FOR A NIGHT OF CELEBRATION FIND OUT MORE
Date: 21st March 2025
Introduction
The media landscape has totally changed from the days when the newspapers dominated sports coverage. The rise of the internet, smartphones and social media have altered the way people find and consume football news and gossip. Print circulations have plummeted and the big newspapers have pivoted online. US social media networks dominate much of the market and the relationship between the traditional, big media players and the tech giants continues to evolve, not necessarily in favour of the old guard. This survey seeks to examine how fans engage with the media today, what influences their choice of reading/viewing and how the rate the accuracy and reliability of the key platforms that dominate today’s Scottish football coverage.
The key results are as follows:
What type of media do you read/consume for your football news and gossip – tick all that apply.
| Social media | 80% |
| Other news websites (e.g. SFSA, SFA, your club’s website, fans’ websites) | 74% |
| Television | 66% |
| Radio | 58% |
| Newspaper websites (e.g Daily Record, Press and Journal) | 53% |
| Podcasts | 34% |
| Printed newspapers/magazines (e.g. Herald, Scotsman, Four-Four-Two) | 29% |
| Written Blogs/Video blogs | 27% |
| WhatsApp groups | 23% |
| The local grapevine/the pub | 20% |
| e-books | 1% |
It’s clear that social media are by far the most important sources of news and gossip. We’ll investigate the individual platforms below, but it’s interesting to note that the second most popular source is websites (SFA, clubs, fans’ websites, etc.), reflecting the online world in which we live. Equally, it’s worth recording that broadcast media, TV and Radio, in that order, are the next most popular choices, followed by newspapers’ own websites. No other choice scored over 50%, with print media (newspapers/magazines) at less than 30%.
Thinking about the last question, what is your main source of news and gossip?
The last question allowed respondents to tick all media that they use. This one asks specifically for the one medium that they use most.
| Social media | 50% |
| Other news websites (e.g. SFSA, SFA, your club’s website) | 18% |
| Newspaper websites (e.g Daily Record, Press and Journal) | 8% |
| Printed newspapers/magazines (e.g. Herald, Scotsman, Four-Four-Two) | 5% |
| Television | 5% |
| Written Blogs/Video blogs | 4% |
| Radio | 3% |
| WhatsApp groups | 3% |
| Podcasts | 2% |
| e-books | 0% |
| The local grapevine/the pub | 0% |
Here the decline of traditional newspapers and their replacement by social and other online media is starkly demonstrated. Exactly half of our poll voted for social media as their favoured choice for football news and gossip. Other than social media and newspapers’ websites, nothing scored over 10%, even TV and Radio
What these first two questions show is that fans access a broad range of media (Q. 1), but go first and foremost to social media (Q. 2), whilst also dipping into the others to a far more limited extent.
Which of the following social media do you use to find football news and gossip?
We next drilled down into the specific social media that fans use…
| 59% | |
| Twitter/X | 58% |
| YouTube | 39% |
| 15% | |
| Threads | 5% |
| 4% | |
| 4% | |
| TikTok | 3% |
| Snapchat | 2% |
| 1% |
The results here by and large mirror what we see from the analytics behind the SFSA website. Facebook is the most important, very closely followed by Twitter/X and then YouTube, with Instagram trailing in fourth place. None of the others really register in any significant way. In the case of Tiktok, we suspect that this is because the nature of that medium means that it used for much more instant videos/memes etc, with less opportunity to engage on a deeper level. Moreover, as we’ll show below, Tiktok’s reputation for accuracy and reliability is exceptionally poor.
Are there any other social media you use that is not listed here?
This was an open-ended question, which did not produce any conclusive results. A few people mentioned Pie and Bovril, but the most commonly cited other social medium used by our respondents is Blue Sky. Given the behaviour of the owner of X/Twitter since our survey was carried out, it would be interesting to know to whether this shift to Blue Sky has accelerated in the last month.
When was the last time you read a piece of news/gossip about football in a printed publication? (newspaper or magazine – do not include your club’s matchday programme).
There is no doubt that although printed newspaper sales are massively down from their peak, the mainstream press continue to punch well above their weight in how they influence news and opinion. To that end, we wanted to find out how many people still read print media.
Just over half had read a print paper or magazine in the last month, with the vast bulk of these (42%) having read one in the last week. This reflects the influence these titles still carry, but the fact that one third have not read a print paper ever (4%) or in the last year (29%), coupled with the response to Qs 1 and 2 above, shows the extent to which print media have fallen from their historically dominant position.
Do you search online for new places to find football information?
Nearly one half (46%) said they do look online for new places to find football information. This, in our view, reflects the way in which the internet has changed the world for football fans. What was once hard to find, often impossible to find, is now available at a click. News travels by word of mouse and not by the turning of a page.
How do you typically discover new football content? (please choose one only)
Here, we wanted to drill down to find out specifically where fans find new content. The results will be no surprise, given what we have uncovered previously.
| Social media feeds | 41% |
| Search engines | 14% |
| BBC Scottish football pages | 14% |
| Friends’ recommendations | 11% |
| Club websites | 9% |
| Daily newspaper web pages (e.g Daily Record, Press and Journal, Sun) | 6% |
| Print media (newspapers and magazines) | 4% |
| STV football web pages | 0% |
| Weekly newspaper websites (e.g. Kilmarnock Standard, Hamilton Advertiser) | 0% |
Once again, it’s social media to the fore, although interestingly the BBC scored as highly as search engines. Somewhat alarmingly, for the local press who were once the first place fans would go for news on their team, no-one cited local papers as a source of new information (this, of course, does not mean that fans don’t use local press to find out scores and match reports).
Approximately how many hours a day do you spend reading or consuming football media?
| Less than 10 minutes | 8% |
| 11 – 30 minutes | 36% |
| 31 minutes to 1 hour | 31% |
| 1 – 2 hours | 19% |
| More than 2 hours | 5% |
Two-thirds (67%) of our respondents spend between 11 minutes to one hour per day, with almost one fifth (9%) spending 1-2 hours.
Do you prefer to read on a digital device or traditional print?
The vast majority – 81% – said they prefer a smartphone/tablet or computer to traditional print media. Given the age profile of our respondents, this might seem slightly surprising, but it does, in our view, reflect the way the world has changed, with people constantly glued to their phones throughout the day.
What role do visuals (images, videos, infographics) play in attracting you to read a football story in the media?
This question was designed to see to what extent imagery, graphics etc. matter in attracting fans to read a football story. It’s hard to draw any definitive conclusion from the results here: over 70% say they have some level of importance, but only 11% say they are very important.
| Very important | 11% |
| Important | 24% |
| Slightly important | 37% |
| Not important | 27% |
Which media are the most accurate and reliable?
The remaining questions asked respondents to assess different media types for their reliability and accuracy. We believe this is important, for ultimately fans are, like most people, creatures of habit, following one team to the exclusion of all/most others. Every club’s fans invariably have several threads of gossip on the go at any one time (“we’re signing X from Hibs,” “I’ve heard the manager won’t survive if we lose to Dundee,” etc.) so being sure that the news you are consuming is accurate and reliable is important. Equally, it’s important for those who provide football news to have a reputation for accuracy as this will help them
We ranked each medium by five categories: very poor, poor, average, good, and excellent. The following pages show how each medium ranked against each variable. What’s interesting, but perhaps not surprising (?), is that social media generally are considered less (sometimes far less) reliable and accurate than traditional media sources, especially the BBC and newspapers’ and clubs’ websites. Podcasts too showed up very well.
When it comes to the highest ranking (Excellent), fans seem to trust their own club’s websites as well as other news(papers) website. Podcasts scored second highest here, followed by broadcast media in general and the BBC in particular.
| Excellent | |
| Other News & Clubs’ websites | 25% |
| Podcasts | 17% |
| BBC football web pages | 17% |
| Television | 13% |
| Radio | 13% |
| Print Newspapers and Magazines | 12% |
| STV football web pages | 9% |
| Twitter/X | 8% |
| 5% | |
| YouTube | 5% |
| Newspapers own websites | 4% |
| Threads | 3% |
| 2% | |
| TikTok | 1% |
| 0% |
The second highest category is ‘Good’ – which, to a large extent, mirrors what we say in the Excellent’ table above. Here, the BBC comes into its own, taking up a huge percentage of the overall vote across the five variables (v poor to excellent), with broadcast media in general scoring highly and social media less well.
| Good | |
| BBC football web pages | 42% |
| Other News & Clubs’ websites | 41% |
| Television | 40% |
| Radio | 40% |
| Podcasts | 36% |
| Print Newspapers and Magazines | 33% |
| Newspapers own websites | 31% |
| STV football web pages | 30% |
| Twitter/X | 27% |
| YouTube | 27% |
| 19% | |
| 9% | |
| Threads | 8% |
| TikTok | 3% |
| 3% |
As far as being ‘Average’ for accuracy and reliability is concerned, Facebook (followed by the other social media in general) stands out, while the high scores for broadcast, club sites, etc. in the ‘Excellent’ and ‘Good’ categories mean that these are pushed down the table. What we are seeing here is a switch from the more trusted to the less trusted media – something which is even more apparent when we look at the below average categories over the next two pages.
| Average | |
| 43% | |
| YouTube | 35% |
| Podcasts | 34% |
| 32% | |
| Twitter/X | 31% |
| STV football web pages | 31% |
| Threads | 31% |
| Newspapers own websites | 29% |
| Television | 28% |
| Radio | 28% |
| BBC football web pages | 26% |
| Print Newspapers and Magazines | 25% |
| Other News & Clubs’ websites | 25% |
| 23% | |
| TikTok | 18% |
Once we move below average and into the ‘Poor’ category, we see the narrowest range of percentages across all media. Bearing in mind that each of these tables on accuracy and reliability reflect the percentage for each medium across all five categories, the fact that all of these are (just, in a few cases) less than one fifth of the total shows that most are in the ‘above average’ categories. Nonethless, we can see that Tiktok is not considered to be of much value for reliable football news and gossip, something that is emphatically re-emphasised in the ‘Very Poor’ category below.
| Poor | |
| TikTok | 19% |
| Threads | 18% |
| Newspapers own websites | 16% |
| STV football web pages | 16% |
| 15% | |
| YouTube | 15% |
| 15% | |
| Twitter/X | 14% |
| 14% | |
| Print Newspapers and Magazines | 12% |
| Television | 10% |
| Radio | 10% |
| BBC football web pages | 9% |
| Podcasts | 8% |
| Other News & Clubs’ websites | 6% |
And (almost) finally, in the worst category (Very Poor), we find Tiktok solidly ensconced at the top of the table, followed by Reddit and Threads. The very low figures for broadcast media, the BBC and Twitter reflect their better scores in the other categories.
| Very Poor | |
| TikTok | 60% |
| 59% | |
| Threads | 39% |
| 20% | |
| Newspapers own websites | 20% |
| YouTube | 19% |
| Print Newspapers and Magazines | 18% |
| 17% | |
| STV football web pages | 14% |
| Television | 9% |
| Radio | 9% |
| Twitter/X | 7% |
| Podcasts | 6% |
| BBC football web pages | 5% |
| Other News & Clubs’ websites | 2% |
Finally (this time!), we present the full table, no in order, for all categories (media) and variables (V poor to Excellent). Here, the overall trends identified above are more obviously visible: most media score well, with broadcast, club and other football news sites and podcasts scoring very well.
| Very Poor | Poor | Average | Good | Excellent | |
| Television | 9% | 10% | 28% | 40% | 13% |
| Radio | 9% | 10% | 28% | 40% | 13% |
| Twitter/X | 20% | 14% | 31% | 27% | 8% |
| 42% | 14% | 32% | 9% | 2% | |
| 17% | 15% | 43% | 19% | 5% | |
| YouTube | 19% | 15% | 35% | 27% | 5% |
| TikTok | 60% | 19% | 18% | 3% | 1% |
| Podcasts | 6% | 8% | 34% | 36% | 17% |
| Newspapers own websites | 20% | 16% | 29% | 31% | 4% |
| Print Newspapers and Magazines | 18% | 12% | 25% | 33% | 12% |
| Other News & Clubs’ websites | 2% | 6% | 25% | 41% | 25% |
| BBC football web pages | 5% | 9% | 26% | 42% | 17% |
| STV football web pages | 14% | 16% | 31% | 30% | 9% |
| 59% | 15% | 23% | 3% | 0% | |
| Threads | 39% | 18% | 31% | 8% | 3% |
When we combine the ‘Good’ and ‘Excellent’ variables, it’s clear that “Other News and Club’s websites” – with 66% of the votes – are regarded by our respondents as the most reliable and accurate sources of football news and gossip. Second (59%) is the BBC’s football web pages, followed by Television, Radio and Podcasts (all on 53%).
When we combine the scores for ‘Poor’ and ‘Very Poor’ we find that Tiktok (79%) is by far the worst, followed by Reddit (74%), Threads (67%) and (surprisingly?) Instagram (56%).
Following the results of our survey, Finn Maley, the SFSA’s student volunteer who lead on this survey, commented, “This is a really interesting study, showing that, as we expected, social media are the most popular place for football fans to get their news and gossip, but they are not regarded as reliable and accurate compared to the more traditional broadcast media and club/football websites. We suspect this is a reflection of the difference between, say, the BBC and other reputable news-gathering organisations who employ professional journalists, and what can be the free-for-all opinion-fest that is social media. Perhaps unsurprisingly, when we asked which social media fans most look at, Facebook, Twitter/X and YouTube are the most popular by some distance. The importance of online media generally is also clear, with nearly one half of fans looking online (mainly via social media) for new places to find football information.”
Finn Maley, SFSA Student Volunteer
Supporters of the following clubs took part in this survey: Aberdeen, Airdrieonians, Alloa Athletic, Annan Athletic, Arbroath, Ayr United, Buckie Thistle, Celtic, Chelsea, Clyde, Cowdenbeath, Dagenham and Redbridge, Dumbarton, Dundee, Dundee United, Dunfermline Athletic, East Stirlingshire, Edinburgh City, Falkirk, Fulham, Glasgow City, Greenock Morton, Hamilton Accies, Hearts, Hibs, Inverness Caledonian Thistle, Kilmarnock, Manchester United, Motherwell, Oban, Partick Thistle, Queen of the South, Raith Rovers, Rangers, Scotland, Spartans, St Johnstone, St Mirren, Stoke City, Stranraer, Sunderland
Posted in: Latest News
Tags: fans survey