More people trust the media than their governments, especially in developing countries. TV is the most trusted news medium, while blogs are trusted least. This is according to a new global survey released at the We Media conference in London — a rather glitzy event held at the BBC in a studio usually reserved for a local pop music show. “Actorvist” Richard Dreyfuss, who is now studying at Oxford, was also one of the main speakers at the event.
The survey was conducted by Globescan in 10 countries on behalf of BBC, Reuters, and The Media Center. In all, 10,230 adults were surveyed in the U.K., U.S., Brazil, Egypt, Germany, India, Indonesia, Nigeria, Russia and South Korea in March and April.
On average, 61 percent of people surveyed trust news media, compared to 52 percent for governments, across all countries polled. However the U.S. bucked this trend, with government ahead of media on trust (67 percent v. 59 percent) along with Britain (51 percent vs 47 percent).
The survey also showed that TV is considered the most “important” news source (56 percent), followed by newspapers (21 percent), Internet (9 percent) and radio (9 percent).
National TV emerged in the study as the most trusted news source overall (trusted by 82 percent, with 16 percent not trusting it). Next were national/regional newspapers (75 percent v. 19 percent), local newspapers (69 percent v. 23 percent) and public radio (67 percent v. 18 percent).
One of the more interesting findings of the study was that blogs were the “least trusted” source (25 percent v. 23 percent) — with half of respondents unable to say whether they trusted them.
Younger people use online media most — it’s the first choice for 19 percent of respondents age 18-24, compared to just 3 percent in the 55-64 age range.
Overall, 56 percent of those surveyed value the opportunity to obtain news online. South Koreans are the most enthusiastic, at 85 percent. (Britain: 57 percent, U.S.: 60 percent)
GlobeScan president Doug Miller said “National TV is still the most trusted news source by a wide margin, although the Internet is gaining ground among the young. The jury is still out on ‘blogs’ — just as many people distrust them as trust them.”
(NOTE: For more conference news, see the Media Center’s We Media Forum Archive.)
