America Ranks Lowest in Media Trust in Recent Reuters Report

Americans have trouble telling fact from fiction in the new media environment. Source: Rob Dobi for WaPo

A recent report from the Reuters Institute for the Study of Journalism at Oxford University found that the United States has the lowest level of overall trust in the news among those 46 countries surveyed. The survey data reveals that only 29% of the 327 million people in the U.S. trust domestic news media. On the other end of the spectrum, Finland ranked the highest with 65% of its population placing trust in the news. Global trends in the report emerged as well. Overall, those on the right side of the political spectrum are much more likely to say that media institutions are biased against them in most surveyed countries. News consumption has also heavily shifted to online formats.

The report also contains important insights on media trends within the U.S. The beginning of 2021 was marked by a downtick in news media consumption as the “Trump Bump” evaporated following the election of Joe Biden. This is the name that political scientists and media analysts use to describe the increase in public attention to the news during Trump’s election and subsequent presidency. Following the 2020 election, those who follow the news once a day dropped 7% while people “extremely” or “very” interested in the news dropped 11%. These losses can largely be attributed to a mass conservative abandonment of establishment media after Trump’s defeat. This is supported by the fact that only 16% of American conservatives believe that the news is covered fairly compared to 75% who believe the opposite. Conversely, more American liberals believe that the news is covered fairly than those who do not. However, traffic for left leaning sources like the New York Times, Washington Post, and CNN also dwindled as a result of the Trump Bump along with right leaning sources like Fox. Another important finding reveals that social media saw the largest rise in use among the four categories of news sources included in the survey.

There are many possible explanations for the concerning lack of trust in media displayed by the American public. For one, the internet has lowered the barrier of entry to disseminate information, allowing many novel news sources to develop. The influx of these news sources has ramped up competition and incentivized many to produce hyper partisan or downright fake news in order to garner viewership. This effect can even be seen in traditional media institutions like The New York Times and the Washington Post, both of which have “gradually shifted away from objective news” in favor of “opinion-based content that appeals to emotion” according to a recent RAND report. 

The rise in overall social media use is also a major contributor to media distrust. In 2005, only 5% of U.S. adults used social media. In 2019, that number was closer to 80%. The meteoric rise in social media use has not been accompanied by a proportional rise in social media oversight. Perhaps because of this, studies have shown that misinformation spreads faster than factual information on social media platforms such as Twitter. All of these factors have contributed to the widening of what Reuters calls the “trust gap,” the difference in public trust for news overall versus trust in social media news. While trust in the news has risen over the last year, trust in news on social media has remained stagnant at a much lower level. Higher rates of polarization in the United States have worsened the effects of the rise of social media on media distrust in the country.

Additionally, numerous political elites, especially those within conservative circles, have levied harsh criticisms upon media institutions in recent years. This has served to lower public trust in the media among those who follow these pundits. 

Luckily, there are numerous promising ways to address the issue of plummeting trust in the media. Many of these involve measures that target misinformation, such as revising Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act (CDA). This proposal has gained bipartisan support, in addition to cautious praise from industry leaders such as Mark Zuckerberg. It would involve amending the legislative text of the CDA to charge social media companies with more responsibility in protecting their users from misinformation. 

There have also been calls for the Federal Trade Commision to step up in the fight against misinformation created for a profit. Proponents of this course of action say that it will cut down on fake news almost overnight, as most false and misleading news stories originate from a relatively small number of online distributors.

One final way to address media distrust is to introduce media literacy classes in schools and community centers in the U.S. This has worked well for Finland, who ranked #1 in the Reuters report, and for Taiwan, who uses these classes to combat disinformation campaigns from China. Fourteen U.S. states have already passed legislation supporting the inclusion of media literacy curricula in public schools.

While the recent Reuters data is indeed concerning, it will serve as a much needed wakeup call for U.S. government actors and media institutions. It is important to remember that democracy necessitates informed citizens. If the American public continues to distance itself from the Fourth Estate, it will have disastrous consequences for the nation as a whole.