Myanmar's media from an audience perspective / 21 Conclusion It is a difficult time for media in Myanmar. With rapid developments, the media and journalists operating within the industry have had to continuously adjust their approaches and positions. And the transformations and adjustments are far from over, making it difficult for the media to find the right course. However, one of the keys to success in these uncertain times are the audiences – those who should be the targets and recipients of the content produced by the media. As is evident from the audience study presented in this report, the people of Myanmar hunger for reliable information relevant to their everyday lives. They want accurate news about their local communities, presented in an easy and decipherable manner with solid documentation and delivered as quickly as possible. In short, they emphasize accuracy, proximity, transparency and immediacy. Although the population to some extent is able to voice what they want in terms of news and information, the media literacy levels of the country remain low; particularly among people living in rural areas and among women who are often limited in their access to both the necessary technologies and media outlets. With little experience with independent media and limited access to information, people lack basic skills to critically analyze news content. A natural skepticism leads them part of the way but with few opportunities and inadequate skills to fact-check information, their inquisitiveness is often left unsatisfied and put aside. Trust in the media is low with people struggling to understand what the media may do for them. For many, the media is elitist and mainly concerns itself with Yangon-related matters leaving little space for and acknowledgement of the realities of the population living outside of the bigger cities. Facebook has to some extent been able to fill the void and give people the ability to seek out information in something close to real time. Yet, navigating the social media is tricky and not everybody understands that it can be abused by people with ill intentions. Though official figures may state that only 34 percent of the population are active Facebook users, the reach of the platform goes far beyond number and the media has become a force to be reckoned with when looking at Myanmar’s media environment – for better or for worse.