Facebook – not radio or TV – is the number one source for news in Thailand, according to a study by Bangkok University.

Academics interviewed around 1,750 people in 5 provinces to find out where they turned for news.

While there were no surprises that Facebook scored so highly, especially among young people, there have been many raised eyebrows about radio’s performance.

The study showed that for traditional news, radio was the medium that Thais turned to last of all.

“Traditionally, radio stations here have focused on entertainment rather than objective news, so that could be one reason for its weak performance,” said Richard Buckle, an ex-radio programmer on Bangkok radio stations.  “But still, it is very disappointing.”

Among working age residents and senior citizens, newspapers and public television were still much relied upon for news updates.

Younger people picked online sources first and were particularly interested in the way news stories would be recommended by friends on Facebook and Twitter.

The findings were shown at a recent seminar at Bangkok University about how mass media needs to adapt to the challenges of the Internet.