Trust continues to erode in mass media
In September a Gallop poll revealed that trust in the mainstream news has hit its lowest point since 2016 in the US.
The latest poll found just 32% of Americans say they trust the news a great deal or a fair amount. 29% stated it was not that high whilst a further 25% said they have no trust at all.
Its interesting to note that those who identify as Democrats are seeing the biggest declines. Democrats’ trust is down 12 points since last year; lowest since 2016
The bottom line is that Americans’ confidence in the mass media to report the news fully, fairly and accurately is at its lowest point matching that of 2016.
In addition, a Gallup poll in June found confidence readings in both TV news and newspapers that were near their historical lows and last December found a record-low-tying rating of the honesty and ethics of journalists.
This most recent poll comes before the latest breakout of conflict in the Middle East in which many have questioned the impartiality of the reporting. A conflict that has seen an enormous amount of money spent on propaganda by the Israeli State to engender support for their subsequent actions.
A poll by Gallop and the Knight Foundation back in February 2023 found a half of Americans surveyed indicated that they believe national news organizations intend to mislead, misinform or persuade the public to adopt a particular point of view through their reporting.
50% disagreed with the statement that national news organizations do not intend to mislead, Only 25% agreed. 52% disagreed with a statement that disseminators of national news “care about the best interests of their readers, viewers and listeners”.
This goes beyond others that have shown a low level of trust in the media to the startling point where many believe there is an intent to deceive. John Sands, Knight’s senior director for media and democracy said;
Americans don’t seem to think that the national news organizations care about the overall impact of their reporting on the society.
Trust in media reporting has been further undermined by the increasing use of AI to create deep fake media reports. We can no longer trust what we see is real as the ability of AI to generate false images is so good we literally can’t tell fact from fiction.
As can be seen in this chart trust in the mass media ranged from 68 percent to 72 percent in three readings in the 1970s, and though it had declined by the late 1990s, it remained at the majority level until 2004, when it fell to 44 percent. After rebounding slightly to 50 percent in 2005, it has not risen above 47 percent since.
These figures should come as no surprise to anyone reading this. Social media allows propaganda to be called out for what it is. More people now get their news from partisan sites. There’s more demand to get information from the horse’s mouth, so to speak. It’s especially easier to see state sponsored propaganda by comparing to other state sponsored propaganda from other countries.
In the US in particular, the mass media has boiled down to crusading for a political party. Instead of reporting on facts, and opening it up for discussion, the news media has become fighters for their ”side”. No wonder society has become so divided.
Well the good news is that these figures display that a majority of American citizens display some healthy cynicism towards the media. The more people seek out information from credible sources for themselves the more this edifice of Empire will crumble.
