• by May 3, 2006

The results of a new poll conducted by the BBC, Reuters, and The Media Center on trust in the media are out today. Notably, the poll finds that more people trust the media than their governments, especially in developing countries, according to the 10-country opinion poll.

For example, the survey found that media is trusted by an average of 61 percent of everyone polled, compared to 52 percent for governments across the countries polled. But in the U.S., the government pulled ahead of media on trust (67 percent vs. 59 percent). In the U.K., it was 51 percent vs. 47 percent.

Trust in media was highest in Nigeria (88 percent vs. 34 percent in government) followed by Indonesia (86 percent vs. 71 percent), India (82 percent vs. 66 percent), and Russia (58 percent vs. 54 percent).

National TV was the most trusted news source overall (trusted by 82 percent, with 16 percent not trusting it), followed by national/regional newspapers (75 percent vs. 19 percent), local newspapers (69 percent vs. 23 percent), public radio (67 percent vs. 18 percent), and international satellite TV (56 percent vs. 19 percent). Now here's an eye-opener: the poll found that Internet blogs were the least trusted source (25 percent vs. 23 percent).

TV was also seen as the most "important" news source (56 percent), followed by newspapers (21 percent), the Internet (9 percent), and radio (9 percent).

While some 72 percent of respondents characterized themselves as keen news followers, almost three in ten people have abandoned a media source over the past year due to a lack of trust in its content. Young urban males ages 18 to 24 were most likely to have stopped using a news source because of a breach of trust.

The younger people are, the less likely they are to get their news from either television or newspapers, and the more likely they are to rely on the Internet. Women are more likely than men to name television as their more important source of news, while men are more likely than women to name newspapers and the Internet.

Other key findings included:

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 Koreans (71 percent), Brazilians (64 percent), Indonesians (59 percent), Britons (58 percent), Indians (56 percent), and citizens in the U.S. (52 percent).

Three of four people (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.

The poll also found that Americans don't agree that the media report all sides of a story. In fact, Americans stand out from citizens of the other countries surveyed on a number of dimensions. They are the most critical of the news media's reporting of all sides of a story; 69 percent disagree that the media does this. They are 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.

Polling was conducted in person or by telephone from March 10 to April 4, 2006 with a total sample of 10,230 people. In four of the 10 countries, the sample was limited to major urban areas. The margin of error per country is +/- 3% 19 times out of 20. For more details, go to http://www.GlobeScan.com.