Commentary

Confidence In Mass Media Continues to Falter

According to Gallup's annual Governance poll, conducted Sept. 13-16, 2010, 57% of Americans say they have little or no trust in the mass media to report the news fully, accurately, and fairly, for the fourth straight year... a record high by one percentage point. The 43% of Americans who express a great deal or fair amount of trust ties the record low, and is far worse than three prior Gallup readings on this measure from the 1970s.

Confidence In Mass Media (Newspapers, TV, Radio) in Reporting News Fully, Accurately and Fairly. (% of Respondents)

Year

Great Deal/Fair Amount

Not Very Much/None at All

2000

51%

49%

2001

53

47

2002

54

46

2003

54

46

2004

44

55

2005

50

49

2006

48

50

2007

47

52

2008

43

56

2009

45

55

2010

43

57

Source: Gallup, September 2010

Trust in the media is now slightly higher than the record-low trust in the legislative branch but lower than trust in the executive and judicial branches of government, even though trust in all three branches is down sharply this year. These findings also further confirm a separate Gallup poll that found little confidence in newspapers and television specifically.

Nearly half of Americans (48%) say the media are too liberal, tying the high end of the narrow 44% to 48% range recorded over the past decade. One-third say the media are just about right while 15% say they are too conservative. Overall, perceptions of bias have remained quite steady over this tumultuous period of change for the media, marked by the growth of cable and Internet news sources. Americans' views now are in fact identical to those in 2004, despite the many changes in the industry since then.

Appraisal of Media (% of Respondents)

 

Respondent Attitude

 

 

Year

Too Liberal

Just Right

Too Conservative

2001

45%

40%

11%

2002

47

37

13

2003

45

39

14

2004

48

33

15

2005

46

37

16

2006

44

33

19

2007

45

35

18

2008

47

36

13

2009

45

35

15

2010

48

33

15

Source: Gallup, September 2010

Democrats and liberals remain far more likely than other political and ideological groups to trust the media and to perceive no bias.

Lower-income Americans and those with less education are generally more likely to trust the media than are those with higher incomes and more education. A subgroup analysis of these data suggests that three demographic groups key to advertisers, adults aged 18 to 29, Americans making at least $75,000 per year, and college graduates, lost more trust in the media in the past year than other groups, but the sample sizes in this survey are too small to say so definitively.

And, according to data from the Pew Research Center, reported by Marketing Charts, people now say they spend 57 minutes on average getting the news from TV, radio or newspapers on a given day, But today, they also spend an additional 13 minutes getting news online (this figure was essentially nil in 2000), increasing the total time spent with the news 22.8% to 70 minutes.

For more information about the study  from Gallup, please visit here.

 

 

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