Americans trust government more than media

Fox News, CNN score high marks, with Big 3 networks, N.Y. Times among
lowest

Despite an oft-heard sentiment about cheats and liars permeating the
realm of government and politics, a new poll suggests Americans have an
even lower view of the news media when it comes to trust.

According to a 10-country, 10,000-person poll by the London-based
research firm GlobeScan, government in the U.S. ranks ahead of media on
trust at 67 to 59 percent.

David Johnston...

I bet they trust polls less than government or media.

The result bucks the trend around the rest of the world, where media is
trusted by an average of 61 percent compared to 52 percent for
governments in the countries polled, which include the UK, Brazil, Egypt,
Germany, India, Indonesia, Nigeria, Russia, and South Korea.

In America, the most trusted specific news sources mentioned without
prompting include Fox News, mentioned by 11 percent, CNN (11 percent),
ABC (4 percent), NBC (4 percent), National Public Radio (3 percent), CBS
(3 percent), Microsoft/MSN (2 percent), USA Today (2 percent), New York
Times (2 percent), CNN.com (1 percent), Time Magazine (1 percent), and
friends/family (1 percent).

Attitudinally, Americans stand out from citizens of the other countries
surveyed on a number of dimensions. They're the most critical of the news
media's reporting of all sides of a story; fully 69 percent disagree the
media does this. They're also significantly more inclined to disagree (46
percent) that the media reports news accurately; and more likely to agree
(68 percent) that the media covers too many 'bad news' stories.

Television is cited as the most important news source by Americans,
mentioned first by 50 percent, followed by newspapers (21 percent),
Internet (14 percent), and radio (10 percent). Fully 20 percent of
American men name the Internet as their most important news source,
ranking second only to South Koreans.

Also, Americans (87 percent) are second only to Germans in preferring to
check several sources of news rather than rely on just one – a finding
correlated with the use of online news sources.

"National TV is still the most trusted news source by a wide margin,
although the Internet is gaining ground among the young," said GlobeScan
president Doug Miller. "The jury is still out on 'blogs' – just as many
people distrust them as trust them."

In fact, the survey found Internet blogs were the least believed source
(trusted by 25 percent vs. 23 percent not trusting it ) – with one in two
people unable to say whether or not they trusted them.

Fully 28 percent of the people polled report abandoning a news source in
the past year because of lack of trust in its content.

Interestingly, Americans (59 percent) and Russians (58 percent) express
similar levels of trust in their media "to operate in the best interests
of society."

Despite the seemingly poor ranking for American media compared to
government, the poll found trust in media has actually increased overall
over the last four years, rising in the U.S. from 52 to 59 percent, and
in Britain from 29 to 47 percent.

Other key findings across the global spectrum include:

Strong demand across all countries and ages for
including two out of three (67 percent) in
the 18-24 age range.

Two in three people believe news is reported
accurately (65 percent), but more than half (57
percent) believe governments interfere too much
with the media and only 42 percent think journalists
can report freely. People are divided on whether
the media covers all sides of a story, with 41
percent disagreeing.

Nigerians believed most strongly that government
interferes too much in the media (75 percent)
followed by South Korea (71 percent), Brazil (64
percent), Indonesia (59 percent), Britain (58
percent), India (56 percent), and the U.S. (52
percent).

Three of four (77 percent) prefer to check
several news sources instead of relying on just
one, especially Internet users.

More men (76 percent) than women (69 percent)
said they followed the news closely every day.

Younger people use online sources most, being
the first choice among 19 percent aged between 18
and 24 compared to just 3 percent in the 55-64
age range. But 56 percent overall valued the
opportunity to obtain news online – South
Koreans being the most enthusiastic at 85 percent.
Britain was on 57 percent and the U.S. on 60 percent.