WASHINGTON, D.C.—Trust in American media has fallen to a all-time low, with only 32% of Americans saying trust the mass media “a great deal” or “a fair amount” to report the news in a full, fair and accurate way, according to a new survey from Gallup.
The figure ties Gallup’s lowest historical reading, previously recorded in 2016, and marks a further decline from the lows seen in 2021 (36%) and 2022 (34%).
This year’s numbers are in some ways worse than those seen in 2016. Another 29% of U.S. adults have “not very much” trust, while a record-high 39% register “none at all.”
The finding that nearly four in 10 Americans (39%) completely lack confidence in the media is the highest on record by one percentage point. It is also 12 points higher than the 2016 reading (27%), which came amid sharp criticism of the media from then-presidential candidate Donald Trump -- making the current assessment of the media the grimmest in Gallup’s history, the researchers noted. In 2016, U.S. adults were most likely to say they had “not very much” trust (41%), explained a Gallup blog post on the results.
The survey does not break down media by type. Previous surveys have found that local news frmo TV radio and newspapers are seen as more trustworthy than national news, cable news or social media. A Gallup survey this summer, however, found that trust in TV News had plummeted.
The latest poll, conducted Sept. 1-23, marks just the second time, along with last year, that the share of Americans who have no confidence at all in the media has surpassed the percentage with a great deal or fair amount of trust, the Gallup blog post explained.
Gallup first asked this question in 1972 and has tracked it nearly every year since 1997. Trust ranged from 68% to 72% in three readings in the 1970s, and though it had declined by the late 1990s, it remained at the majority level until 2004, when it fell to 44%. After rebounding slightly to 50% in 2005, it has not risen above 47% since, Callup said.
Democrats’ confidence in the mass media has consistently outpaced Republicans’, but the latest gap of 47 points is the narrowest since 2016. Democrats’ trust in the media has fallen 12 points over the past year, to 58%, and compares with 11% among Republicans and 29% among independents.
The gap in partisans’ media confidence was largest from 2017 through 2022. During that period, Democrats’ trust was above its trend average of 64%, while Republicans’ and independents’ confidence were each below their averages (33% and 44%, respectively).
Aggregated data last year showed that young Democrats trust the media far less than older Democrats, while Republicans are less varied in their views by age group.
Overall, the researchers noted that Americans’ confidence in the mass media to report the news fully, fairly and accurately is at its lowest point since 2016, when Republicans’ trust fell sharply. This low confidence reading for the fourth estate comes at a time when trust in each of the three branches of the federal government is also low.
In addition, Gallup in June found confidence readings in both TV news and newspapers that were near their historical lows and last December found a record-low-tying rating of the honesty and ethics of journalists, the company reported.
"Although partisans remain sharply divided in their views of the media, Democrats’ trust fell significantly this year," the blog post reported. "Still, a majority of Democrats but few Republicans continue to have confidence in the mass media. Republicans’ low confidence in the media has little room to worsen, but Democrats’ could still deteriorate and bring the overall national confidence reading down further."
