Myanmar's media from an audience perspective / 19 The Facebook factor “I get more knowledge as if I got a window to the world. Before, I could only watch TV and read the newspaper.” (16-year-old woman from urban Yangon). One of the most surprising findings from the audience study was the role and impact of Facebook. Although official figures state that only about one out of three in Myanmar are active Facebook users, most people that participated in the audience study knew of Facebook and had gotten information from Facebook in one way or another. Facebook has clearly become a big factor in Myanmar’s news and information flows and the reach of the social networking site is far bigger than the official fiure of 34 percent. The sharing culture of Myanmar has ensured that information from the social net working platform is spread outside of the online realm and reaches people by word of mouth in traditional ways. As one research participant explains: “I look at Facebook every day. I joined the GAB group [a group with information relevant for farmers] because I want to get updates on bean prices. As we cannot easily get news from outside in our village I share the price information I have with others.” (44-year-old man from rural Yangon). One of the things that people particularly appreciate about Facebook is the platform’s ability to present them with news and information at a speed that cannot be matched by any other media. They can get updates almost in real time. For people living in conflict-prone areas or regions that are likely to suffer from natural disasters it can be a matter of life and death to get accurate and up-to-date information. “Recently, one ward caught on fire. But before the fire fighters came, the news was already posted on the Facebook.” (63-year-old woman from urban Rakhine). People are, however, aware that they cannot necessarily fully trust the information that they get online. They know that they are sometimes misled and that some people use the platform to spread hate speech and disinformation. As a 47-year-old man from urban Mandalay says: “Not every post on Facebook is reliable. Some posts are biased based on personal opinions. Sometimes we can also see hate speech and rumors such as ‘Muslims have too big of an influence’ and ‘Buddhism will disappear under the NLD government’. Sometimes, people post personal attacks. So, we need to rely on our rational thinking to judge the news.”