Trust in the media hit a record low for the third straight year in 2024, as Gallup’s annual survey on trust finds that less than a third of Americans say they believe what they’re being told by the media – and a separate study suggests that a far smaller percent may actually do so.
On Monday, Gallup released the results of its national survey of U.S. adults, conducted Sept. 3-15, in which it asked the following question: “In general, how much trust and confidence do you have in the mass media -- such as newspapers, TV and radio -- when it comes to reporting the news fully, accurately and fairly -- a great deal, a fair amount, not very much or none at all?”
2024 marks the third straight year in which those with no trust in the media have outnumbered those with at least some trust. Just 31% of U.S. adults say they have at least “a fair amount” of trust in the media, while even more report that they have no trust “at all” in the media (36%). According to this year’s survey:
- Great deal/fair amount of trust: 31%
- Not very much trust: 33%
- None at all: 36%
What’s more, results of a new national study of American adults, released last month by the think tank Populace with the help of Gradient and YouGov, suggests that distrust of the media is actually much greater than traditional polls have found. Less than a third of those who claim that “In general, I trust the media to tell me the truth” actually do so, the study finds:
Americans are overstating their trust in the media. Whereas 24% of people publicly agree they trust the media to tell the truth, in private only 7% truly believe it.
(….)
Results from every generation reveal a double-digit gap between what people are willing to say publicly and what they privately think.
Thus, while about one in four Americans claim they trust the media, only about one in 14 truly do have confidence in the news they’re being fed.
In both surveys, Democrats are the most likely to profess trust in the media, followed by Independents and Republicans. But, even Democrats’ faith in the media has been declining in recent years, Gallup reports:
After dropping precipitously to the trend low of 51% in 2016, Democrats’ trust in the media ranged from 68% to 76% between 2017 and 2022 but fell to 58% last year and has edged down since.
Additionally, the Populace study finds that “Democrats are the least forthcoming in their evaluations of the honesty of the media.” While 42% of Democrats say publicly that they trust the media, only 9% actually do (a 33-point gap), meaning that only about one of every five Democrats who claim to trust the media do so in reality.
Editor's Note: This blog has been cross-posted from the CNS News blog on MRCTV. The link to the original story can be found here.
