Commentary
Public Trust In Media Declines Amid Wider Partisan Divide
- by September 8, 2021
The finding highlights the need for fact-based journalism to counter online misinformation, propaganda and fake news.
The portion of U.S. adults who tend to trust national news
organizations slipped from 76% in 2016 to a new low of 58% this year, according to Pew Research Center. Local news was deemed the most
trustworthy, though its percentages slipped from 82% to 75% during the period.
Social media is the least trusted as a source of information, falling from 34% to 27%.
Republicans and Republican-leaning independents drove much of the declines among these media channels. The portion of political conservatives who trust the national news plunged from 70% five
years ago to a low of 35% this year.
Most Democrats and Democrat-leaning independents said they trust the national news, though their numbers fell from 83% to a low of 78%
during the period.
“This partisan gap is the largest of any time that this question has been asked since 2016,” according to Pew, “and it grows even wider
— to 53 points — between liberal Democrats (83%) and conservative Republicans (30%).”
The survey didn’t probe the reasons for these declines, leaving
them open for interpretation. The fragmentation of news media likely is a big reason. Amid the profusion of news and commentary outlets that appeal to narrower constituencies, readers can find
coverage to reinforce their political biases.
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More distressing is the broad decline in trust toward the news media as misinformation proliferates online.
