Only 6% of Americans trust the media – survey



As accusations of bias fly during an election year, a new report shows that Americans have serious misgivings about the media, with only six percent saying they have “a great deal of confidence” in the press.

A survey of more than 2,000 adults released on Sunday showed that trust in the media has dipped to dramatically low levels. About 52 percent of respondents said they have “some confidence” in the press, while 41 percent said they have “hardly any confidence.”

“Over the last two decades, research shows the public has grown increasingly skeptical of the news industry,” the report from the American Press Institute reads. “The study reaffirms that consumers do value broad concepts of trust like fairness, balance, accuracy, and completeness. At least two-thirds of Americans cite each of these four general principles as very important to them.”

According to the study, most people couldn’t name a specific instance that damaged their confidence in the media, but about 40 percent could remember a case, generally involving a report that turned out to be inaccurate or was perceived as biased, which caused them to lose their trust.

“The most important thing that news organizations can do is be accurate, and while we know that is a high value, this study reinforces that,” Margaret Sullivan, public editor of the New York Times, told the Associated Press.

The most essential quality for media institutions is accuracy, with 85 percent of respondents saying it’s extremely or very important for them to get the facts straight. Seventy-six percent said that timeliness is critical.

While social media has changed the way many people encounter news, it’s not necessarily for the better. Although 87 percent said they receive news via Facebook, for example, only 12 percent said they trust it “a lot or a great deal.” The social network with the highest trust rating was LinkedIn, and even then the level confidence was only 23 percent.

While the report didn’t point out any specific recent instances that have led to the erosion in public trust, the AP pointed to a Rolling Stone article on a campus rape that received widespread coverage in the US, but ultimately had to be retracted. It also highlighted inaccurate reports on the Supreme Court’s first ruling upholding Obamacare.

There have also been accusations of biased coverage of the current presidential campaigns, especially with respect to outsider candidates such as Donald Trump and Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders.

The American Press Institute report comes in the wake of a September 2015 Gallup poll which found that only 7 percent of Americans have a great deal of trust in the media, with about 33 percent saying they had a fair amount, and 60 percent claiming they had either little or no trust in the media.

http://www.rt.com/usa/340124-americans-trust-media-plummets/

Bad News: Only 6% of Americans trust the media –

http://youtu.be/S25qKEGWvH0/
02:19

But what is worse is that the 96% that don't trust the media probably trust the internet

What is the real story is how 6% of the population could be that stupid?

especially those that feel The Bern,or like the Laughing Hyena!

Looks like you found that red wine,it's affecting your maths.

Which doesn't mean much without defining exactly who and what they don't trust.

I mean all the different "media" outlets make it a HUGE population.

And IME most people will have their "go to" sources.
They'll have a few websites they tend to stick to for all their news, and then just lump in all the rest as "the media," at best you occasionally get "MSM" that usually means abc, cbs, nbc, msnbc, cnn, cnbc, cable news shows.

And then they'll say "I don't trust 'the media,' or 'MSM.'"
But they've just taken out the media they use and don't include it as part of "the media."

So what they're "really" saying is "I don't trust any media I don't like and don't know; stranger media."
And when there are probably millions of websites, blogs, news shows, magazines, newspapers to choose from, then it seems obvious that's the only answer they can give.
That they'd simply be stupid to trust "the media."

...I wish my dad was still alive...when I was growing up my dad was always watching some kind of news show...he would keep me informed of what was going on and always explained things from all different perspectives...now..geez...nothing makes sense and most of what you hear is either the persons personal opinion or made up....I love conspiracy theories...and I believe some may be true...at least that's one good thing about the Internet...you can research almost everything..and I have found that's the best way to the truth...sorta

I am not sure if it is that high honestly...
And I am amazed that so many people won't trust in the media and yet if they find it on the internet then it must be true...

I haven't figured that one out.

I knew the level of "dumb" was pretty high.
But 6%, that's epidemic proportions.

I think this kind of poll is illusory.

I'm not saying that a lot more people actually do trust "the media," it's just that if you just stop and look at the math in a very simple way, it should be obvious that the poll is flawed.

Think of this: if NINETY-FOUR percent of the people "don't trust the media," that means that they are all dealing with the world by flipping coins or guessing about everything. No matter how negative you want to pretend to be about the behavior of the American people, if 94% of them were "winging it" all the time, refusing to believe anything in "the media," the country would be in ACTUAL utter chaos.

So that's the start.

Add in that it's become intensely fashionable to SAY that you "don't trust the media," and the poll turns into near complete nonsense.

People always say that their local weather people are overpaid idiots too. But they take umbrellas when rain is predicted, and they put chains on when snow is due. So they really DO "trust the media" a fair amount.

If nothing else, a fair number of people think they can "read through" the bias they are sure (but can rarely prove in detail) is there, and "see" the truth, based on what " the media" is saying to them.

And bottom line, if people were just not watching ANY media news, the advertising dollars for them would dry up. That hasn't happened, so the pollsters have some explaining to do.

It reminds me a bit of the times I've heard huge complaints about radio or TV shows. The people fussing shout and send massive letter campaigns, but...they also know exactly what happened on the shows they claim they hate to watch or listen to.

How can they file such detailed complaints while never watching/listening?

Think of this: if NINETY-FOUR percent of the people "don't trust the media,"

By the article it infers multiple choice. So perhaps.

Do you trust the media?

1-Always
2-Often
3-Sometimes
4-Hardly ever
5- Never

Sometimes or Hardly ever is a NO.

Compare it to. ' Do you trust your husband is faithful? '

When that NBC anchor Brian what's his face went down for lying on katrina. Alot of people I know only started getting their news on the internet. Now if it isn't got 3 raw sources, it didn't happen.
Besides some *** hole billionaire buys a paper or news source and he dictates what he feels people should belive. Fair and balanced? OHFOX!
Count me in the 94th percentile. Hey 1%ers cramit.

Lack of news or what I consider important, annoys me the most.
The other day.. Flooding & quakes in USA, magma detected on lots of readings in YellowStone. And what was big news? Whatever Hillary Clinton said.

Just listen to the masters . Your truth is irlevent.

I think most people only trust the media when they are hearing or reading what they WANT to believe regardless of which way they lean politically and socially.

the press is the good and the bad

there is so much misinformation and out of context information floating in cyberspace and in media


it does make it hard to separate the legit fact based information from the sensational emotional based information

Part of why each media company chooses to report what they do, is directly based on profit motive.

The reason they ignore one story and focus on something else, is usually because they think more people will watch what they choose.

When something like 9-11 happens, we get 24 x 7 coverage, even when 90% of the time they are rehashing the same fact that they really don't know anything new. When something more subtle happens, that SOME of us think or know is very important, but not ENOUGH people care, it will get mentioned, maybe even a few excited stories, before attention drops away.

Sometimes, the "media" can act to prove people who hate it for various reasons, completely wrong.

For example, despite the Right and the Republicans pretending that most of the bigger media outlets are left wing run Democrat supporting propaganda fonts, but because those "lefties" ALL opted to put the Day Count of the Iranian Hostages as their headline EVERY DAY, for months, they brought the Carter Administration down. If someone then had wanted to claim that the Media was controlled by the Republicans, hey might have succeeded in making a good case.

Looking for an Alternative? Nearly No Americans Trust the News Media

Only 6% of those polled asserted that they have “a lot of confidence” in the media, according to a new study by the Media Insight Project, a partnership of The Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research and the American Press Institute.

The survey found that accuracy is the biggest issue Americans have with the media, with nearly 90% of people stating that it is extremely or very important for the press to have their facts correct.

Approximately 40% claimed that they couldn’t remember a specific incident that made them lose their faith in the media, but most often the study found that trust was lost after incidents that involved accuracy or a clear editorial bias.

With fierce competition from alternative media, as well as instant updates on news events on social media, such as Twitter, the push to be first appears to be forcing outlets to publish without necessarily waiting for the facts.

"The most important thing that news organizations can do is be accurate, and while we know that is a high value, this study reinforces that," Margaret Sullivan, public editor of The New York Times — a paper that has been widely criticised as currently having a strong bias in favor of Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton — told AP. “Even if it goes against the competitive push to be first, she said, "perhaps there has to be a willingness to wait a little bit to be right."

Meanwhile, publishers of some of the largest online news outlets have been in a panic amid layoffs. In the month of April alone, Mashable laid off 30 people and Salon is in the process of downsizing as well.

The poll was conducted from February 18 through March 21, and used a sample of 2,014 adults. The margin of error for their findings was plus or minus 2.9%.

http://m.sputniknews.com/us/20160418/1038223710/american-news-dishonest-innaccurate.html/

1 face 1 epic. that's for sure. I've even forget about this.......because I've usually login to the NASA.....
more then about 10% people searching for foods then about 30% producing it. Then the others?