Here’s some data that challenges the progress of social media.

Consumer appetite for radio – like TV – is at an all time high. According to RAJAR data (PDF) for the first quarter of 2010 46.5m adults tune into radio each week in the UK.

You thought that social media was killing mainstream media? No chance.

But radio remains a crude instrument to communicate with an audience. People may be listening but are they engaged?

David Cushman made this point on Twitter in response to a tweet I posted about the RAJAR data.

“Listener figures are more like newspaper readership versus sales. Downloading [is a] more active choice,” he said.

Neville Hobson commented that podcasting is the social media equivalent of radio. It’s targeted and engages an audience directly. But herein lies an issue; downloading doesn’t necessarily equate to listening

“As a podcaster I’m far more interested in actual listener numbers than how many downloads,” said Hobson.