Category: Trust

U.S. MEDIA TRUST: LOWEST FOR TV, NOT GREAT FOR PAPERS

7/11/2012

A new Gallup poll indicates American confidence in television news has reached an all-time low. Trust in newspapers is not as bad, but not much better.

The poll suggests only 21 per cent of Americans have confidence in television news, one point below last year's finding and down 25 points from Gallup's original research in 1963. Confidence in newspapers dropped to 25 per cent this year, down from 28 per cent last year and half of the 50-per-cent confidence rate of 1980.

Interestingly, those who identify themselves as liberals were among those whose confidence most declined, rivaling low-confidence levels by those who identify themselves as conservatives.

Gallup could not conclude why television news confidence dropped as it did, but noted the poll was taken before recent cable news mishaps involving the Supreme Court decision on health care legislation --- meaning, the results might even be lower today.

Gallup suggests all networks "will have to renew their efforts to show Americans that they deserve a higher level of confidence than what they enjoy today."

Among the 16 institutions Gallup studied, confidence in newspapers ranked tenth and television news eleventh. The military, small business, the police, organized religion, the medical system, the presidency, the Supreme Court, public schools and the justice system ranked ahead of them. Only organized labour, banks, big business, health maintenance organizations (HMOs) and Congress ranked lower.

Pew Center study: U.S. trust in press declines

9/23/2011

A new report from the Pew Center for People and the Press suggests significant problems in public trust of the press in the United States. On nine of 12 negative indices studied since 1985, the survey of trust showed all-time marks.

That being said, the press remains more trusted as a source of information than are such other institutions as government and business.

The report found people trust their local sources of information more than they do national sources, and it suggested that the national perceptions were skewed by negative views about all-news cable television.

"Fully 66% say news stories often are inaccurate, 77% think that news organizations tend to favor one side, and 80% say news organizations are often influenced by powerful people and organizations," Pew said in summarizing the study. "As recently as four years ago, 39% said news organizations mostly get the facts straight and 53% said stories are often inaccurate."

Then again, when asked about their own news sources, Americans were far more kind. Some 62 per cent said their sources were accurate and only 30 per cent said the stories were often inaccurate.

Among the other findings in the poll of 1,501 Americans in July: television remains the prime information source; nearly one-quarter now get news from social media; people want their press to be non-political; most believe news organizations have professional intentions; equal numbers say the press helps and hurts democracy; and most support its watchdog role.

Study: U.K. trust in press drops following the phone-hacking scandal

9/22/2011

Hardly surprising but worth chronicling: A new United Kingdom study has found a decline in public trust of the broadsheet and tabloid press.

With the extent of the phone-hacking scandal much more evident, the poll suggested that only five per cent of Britons trust the tabloid journalists, while 41 per cent trust the broadsheet journalists. That level is down from seven per cent and 54 per cent, respectively, last November.

The YouGov survey for the University of Nottingham found that trust in British members of Parliament rose in the same period to 24 per cent from 17 per cent.

Reuters blogger says it's OK for Twitter to carry rumours as a "new newsroom"

7/28/2011

Earlier today, a Twitter hoax spread that CNN host Piers Morgan had been suspended pending an investigation of his involvement in the phone-hacking scandal. Some journalists reTweeted before one journalist determined the information was untrue. (Martin Bryant of TheNextWeb chronicles the episode.)

Reuters blogger Felix Salmon says this should not be a cause for deep concern. Twitter is the "new newsroom," he writes, where people can raise rumours and have them shot down, "no harm no foul." Just as journalists pass around gossip in a newsroom, he says Twitter can serve as a similar environment.

Salmon believes that the big accounts of organizations ought to be held to higher standards. "But for the rest of us, we’re conversing on Twitter just like we converse in real life," he says.

"People are human, they believe rumours, make mistakes, jump to conclusions. Twitter is just a healthy reminder of that fact," he concludes.

What do you think?

Gallup: Public regaining trust in U.S. media

6/29/2011

The new annual Gallup poll on institutional trust suggests U.S. media are regaining (albeit slightly) the ground lost.

Its poll of trust in newspapers and television found growth after years of all-time lows. Some 28% said they had a great deal or quite a lot of trust in newspapers and 27% said the same about television.

That number, though, lags considerably behind numbers as recent as 2003.

The biggest gains in approval came from 35- to 49-year-olds. Younger Americans expressed greater trust in television and less trust in newspapers. While Gallup says the new numbers are good indicators, it points to the volatility of young trust as a precursor of possible difficulties.

Newspapers and TV ranked 10th and 11th of the 16 institutions assessed.

Scott Rosenberg on how newsrooms can restore trust

6/24/2011

Scott Rosenberg, the media critic and co-founder of Salon, writes in the PBS MediaShift Idea Lab that newsrooms have a credibility issue they can address. He notes that about half of all stories contain errors but only about three per cent of them are corrected.

He has some basic prescriptions to restore and redevelop trust:

1. Link out. Let people see what you've researched.
2. Show your work and let it be iterative.
3. Let people help you identify and fix mistakes.

Rosenberg says four problems beset newsrooms in grappling with their shortcomings: tools and workflows aren't up to the task, there is denial and avoidance, readers are seen as adversaries, and the business is obsessed with the business.

How do you think media can more effectively deal with errors?

Trust in mainstream media remains high: Canadian Media Research Consortium

5/11/2011

A report released today suggests Canadians continue to trust traditional sources of media.

A public opinion poll found nine in 10 Canadians found mainstream media trustworthy and reliable. It also suggests only one in four found social media similarly credible.

The survey was conducted by Angus Reid Public Opinion for the Canadian Media Research Consortium, an academic organization examining journalism issues.

It found that about one in three young Canadians valued social media for trust and reliability and that overall Canadians were far more comfortable with professionally edited content than wiki-type refinement. Most also believed that professional media were better equipped to deal with critical issues than were citizen-based entities.

"The established news brands continue to be the gold standard for verification," the survey concluded. While younger Canadians were more optimistic about the possibilities for citizen-based media, even they registered a high degree of support for traditional sources.

Brand trust: Microsoft, Apple, Google higher than Facebook, Twitter

6/22/2010

There are two surveys out that suggest a rearranged pecking order in online media trust.

One, from Harris Associates, suggests consumers are more trusting of branded news organizations that of portals. The trust extends through editorial and advertising content, says the survey for the Online Publishing Association.

The second, from Zogby Interactive, suggests that the technology heavyweights still hold reputational sway over the social networks in terms of consumer trust. Microsoft, Apple and Google have higher trust levels than Facebook and Twitter. John Zogby says the new firms don't have the brand equity yet.

McKinsey: Newspapers have hope because they have trust

4/1/2010

The McKinsey Quarterly newsletter (available here via free subscription) has some promising news for the newspaper industry: News consumption is up, and newspapers are the most trusted medium.

The challenge is to convert the consumption overall into newspaper consumption specifically, and McKinsey is clear that the gains in online revenue will not offset the declines in print revenue.

What is an advantage, possibly, is the trust consumers place in newspapers. "This suggests that newspapers have further scope to go beyond news, to drive reader interest and advertising revenues at the same time," it says.

The prescription: "To survive in the digital age, newspapers will need to develop deeper skills—for example, in managing advertiser relationships and gaining customer insights—and they must walk a fine line to retain editorial independence and quality to capture these opportunities. But for those who get it right, the rewards could be significant.

A poll on media trust with some surprising findings

3/8/2008

We in Canada look with some detached bemusement at the media gorging on the U.S. presidential campaign in the primary stage and can only wonder what it will be like come the fall.
But a newly released Harris Interactive poll has some interesting results on the trust relationship among Americans with various media in this pre-election phase.
American trust of media hasn't been high in a long time. Canadian trust is higher, which should either make us prouder of our media performance or cognizant of the fact we don't have the range (that is, low end) of the tabloid press that often drags down the overall numbers in the U.S.
But the Harris poll has some difficult numbers for television. It seems Americans trust online news more than television news at this stage.
Now, it's not where they're going to get their political news --- at least, not yet. They're going to local TV, then to cable news, then to local newspapers.
But, for a medium that often scores poorly in terms of trust, it's interesting that Harris found online trust strengthening at this critical time. And it's not online news from the conventional sources, either --- a fairly small core of the online trust was surfing the national newspapers and television outlets on the Web. No, it seems a new brigade of online sources is emerging.

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