Reminiscent of this post, comes a reminder from LexisNexis that traditional media are much more highly trusted than any of us lot. However, it appears that the US is less trusting of its media — old and new — than the UK. Are we brits more gullible than the US, or is American media just a lot worse?
.…Findings show that [in the US]:
Half of those surveyed said that they would turn to network television for immediate news information (NB: 66% in the UK)
The next most popular source was the radio (42%)
37% of consumers would use daily local newspapers
33% cable news or business networks
25% of those interviewed would rely on Internet sites of print and broadcast media
6% would turn to Internet user groups, blogs and chat rooms (24% in the UK)
On average, says the report, consumers are four to six times more likely to feel that traditional media is more trustworthy than emerging news sources for news they feel is most interesting.
.…For entertainment, consumers most often picked traditional lifestyle media as the most trusted source. However, Internet blogs, user groups and chat rooms were selected next most often, followed by weekly or monthly general interest and news magazines.
.…52% of the consumers surveyed anticipate they will continue to mostly trust and rely on traditional news sources. However, 35% expect they will trust and rely on both emerging news and traditional news in the future, and 13% anticipate they will trust and rely mostly on emerging media.
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None of these figures shows much trust in the news media, leading me to question the statement that “traditional media are much more highly trusted than any of us lot.”
It would be interesting to see how these figures stacked up with your level of trust in news delivered to you from your best friend, your mother, your grocery store clerk, your local police officer, the blog you read every day, a sometime email correspondent, etc…
Well, twice as trusted is definitely “much more”, but I do take your point, Stephen. We don’t have the totals, but perhaps a more interesting tack would be “Half Americans Don’t Trust Any Media”.
I also like the distinction you make between the blogs we read every day and just doing an internet search on a subject. Would be interesting to know more about that.
[…] What the debate you’re about to hear tells you is that a lot of people are learning to write headlines. Contributions in declining order of snappiness and suggestiveness were: Trust Me I’m A Journalist; Why We Needs Blogs and Newspapers; A Glass House; and the more mundane but accurate: Journalistic Standards in The Blogosphere. […]