STORY HIGHLIGHTS
- 34% have a “great deal” or “fair amount” of confidence in media
- 38% with no trust at all outpaces great deal/fair amount for first time
- 70% of Democrats, 14% of Republicans, 27% of independents trust media
WASHINGTON, D.C. — At 34%, Americans’ trust in the mass media to report the news “fully, accurately and fairly” is essentially unchanged from last year and just two points higher than the lowest that Gallup has recorded, in 2016 during the presidential campaign.
Just 7% of Americans have “a great deal” of trust and confidence in the media, and 27% have “a fair amount.” Meanwhile, 28% of U.S. adults say they do not have very much confidence and 38% have none at all in newspapers, TV and radio. Notably, this is the first time that the percentage of Americans with no trust at all in the media is higher than the percentage with a great deal or a fair amount combined.
These data are from a Sept. 1-16 Gallup poll, which, in addition to the low rating for the fourth estate, also found weak confidence ratings for the three branches of government .
The percentage of Americans with a great deal or fair amount of trust in the media has not been at the majority level since 2003, although before that — in three readings in the 1970s and seven readings between 1997 and 2003 — it was the norm. The public’s confidence rating for the media has averaged 42% since 2004.
Partisan Divide in Media Trust Persists
Americans’ trust in the media remains sharply polarized along partisan lines, with 70% of Democrats, 14% of Republicans and 27% of independents saying they have a great deal or fair amount of confidence.
There has been a consistent double-digit gap in trust between Democrats and Republicans since 2001, and that gap has ranged from 54 to 63 percentage points since 2017.
https://news.gallup.com/poll/403166/americans-trust-media-remains-near-record-low.aspx