{"id":39518,"date":"2026-07-13T20:05:18","date_gmt":"2026-07-13T18:05:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/?post_type=news&#038;p=39518"},"modified":"2026-07-13T20:05:18","modified_gmt":"2026-07-13T18:05:18","slug":"radio-remains-king-in-benin-despite-boom-in-social-media-use","status":"publish","type":"news","link":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/news\/radio-remains-king-in-benin-despite-boom-in-social-media-use\/","title":{"rendered":"Radio remains king in Benin despite boom in social media use \u00a0"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Despite a massive surge in internet usage and social media over the last decade, radio remains the absolute king of news and information in Benin.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>According to a fresh Afrobarometer survey released this Monday, nearly three-quarters (72%) of Benin\u2019s citizens still tune in to the radio every day or a few times a week. While regular social media use skyrocketed eight-fold between 2014 and 2024, it still trails far behind as a regular news source at 46%, followed by television at 36% and web browsing at 29%.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>The data also reveals a stark gap between what people expect from their media and what they actually see. While an overwhelming 69% of Beninese believe the press should be entirely free to publish without government control, only 45% feel that journalists are actually free to report the news without censorship or state interference in practice.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>&#8211;ChannelAfrica\/Afrobarometer&#8211;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"featured_media":39519,"template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false},"news-type":[26],"class_list":["post-39518","news","type-news","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","news-type-general_news","entry"],"acf":{"short_description":"Radio beats social media as Benin's top news source","published_date":"2026-07-13 20:04:34","news_description":"Radio beats social media as Benin's top news source","form_embed":"","author":"","image_caption":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news\/39518","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/news"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news\/39518\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":39520,"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news\/39518\/revisions\/39520"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/39519"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=39518"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"news-type","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news-type?post=39518"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}