Poll: Trust in media at all-time low

Trust in the media has reached another all-time low, according to a Gallup study. 

{mosads}“Americans’ trust and confidence in the mass media ‘to report the news fully, accurately and fairly’ has dropped to its lowest level in Gallup polling history, with 32 percent saying they have a great deal or fair amount of trust in the media,” Gallup analyst Art Swift said. 

“This is down eight percentage points from last year,” the report continues. 

Gallup’s research on the subject of trust in media began in 1972. 

The number of Americans expressing such trust has decreased steadily in recent years, going below a majority level and staying there since 2007.

“Over the history of the entire trend, Americans’ trust and confidence hit its highest point in 1976, at 72 percent, in the wake of widely lauded examples of investigative journalism regarding Vietnam and the Watergate scandal,” Swift said.

Currently, those who identify as Republican have a decidedly more negative view of the media than those who identify as Democrat.  

“Republicans who say they have trust in the media has plummeted to 14 percent from 32 percent a year ago. This is easily the lowest confidence among Republicans in 20 years,” Swift noted.

Among Democrats, the number jumps to 51 percent. Among independents, it is 30 percent.

“Now, only about a third of the U.S. has any trust in the Fourth Estate, a stunning development for an institution designed to inform the public,” Gallup said.

The survey was recently conducted with a random sample of 1,020 adults, ages 18 and older living in the U.S.