Gallup released a new poll this week showing that America’s trust in media continues to decline. Only 4 in 10 Americans say they have a “great deal” or a “fair amount” of trust in the media to report the news fairly and accurately. Americans’ confidence in the media has slowly eroded from a high of 55% in 1998 and 1999. And, since 2007, the majority of Americans have had little or no trust in the mass media.
There was quite a spread between Democrats and Republicans, too. While both had low levels of trust, at 55 percent, Democrats trusted the media much more than the 32 percent realized by Republicans. The result from Independents was similar to Republicans at only 33 percent trust in the media.
Washington Post writer Chris Cillizza surmises that this is primarily due to partisans in both politics and media.
“The rise of outside partisan groups — on the left and the right — has coincided with a bumper crop of partisan-first media outlets designed to foment rage and exasperation with the mainstream media’s alleged missteps. It’s good business for them — and just plain terrible for the American public.”
Overall, the media trend over the past decade, Gallup said, mirrors a decline in trust “in government more generally, as well as confidence in many U.S. institutions.” But Gallup also said that “serious mistakes” at news organizations have contributed to the fall, and singled out this year’s scandal involving former NBC Nightly News anchor Brian Williams as part of the problem.
And while these are several viewpoint that many will find satisfying, could it also be that the declining trust also coincides with the rise of the internet and the plethora of informational sources now available to the general public? Could these other sources of information be allowing people to be better informed or to hear more than one side of a story? Or, could it be that people are beginning to find their own select sources of information that they cling to and become distrusting of others? Any number of these reasons could be plausible, we’ll have to wait to see Gallup’s next poll to see which one is the best answer.
