BBC, Reuters Global Poll on Trust: Lack of Trust Driving Consumers to Switch News Providers
Thursday, 04 May 2006
A 10-nation poll conducted for Reuters, the BBC and The Media Center across four continents, finds that in a world of committed news junkies, trust in the news provider is a key issue. While some 72 percent of respondents characterized themselves as keen news followers, almost three in ten people have abandoned a media source over the past year due to a lack of trust in its content.
Conducted by polling company GlobeScan as part of this week's Reuters / BBC / Media Center 'We Media' Forum, a major 10-nation public opinion poll exploring trust in the media has found that even though the media is more trusted than the national government in half the countries surveyed, significant numbers of people are switching news sources because they do not trust the information they receive.
Release and discussion of the poll results opened the We Media Global Forum, presented by The Media Center at the BBC and Reuters in London, May 3-4, 2006.
Get the full poll results here: http://www.globescan.com/news_archives/bbcreut.html
Media is trusted by an average of 61 percent compared to 52 percent for governments across the countries polled. But the US bucked the trend - with government ahead of media on trust (67 percent - 59 percent) along with Britain (51 percent - 47 percent).
Trust in media was highest in Nigeria (88 percent v 34 percent gov't.) followed by Indonesia (86 percent v 71 percent), India (82 percent v 66 percent), Egypt (74 percent, gov't. not asked), and Russia (58 percent v 54 percent).
National TV was the most trusted news source overall (trusted by 82 percent, with 16 percent not trusting it) - followed by national/regional newspapers (75 percent vs 19 percent), local newspapers (69 percent vs 23 percent), public radio (67 percent vs 18 percent), and international satellite TV (56 percent vs 19 percent). Internet blogs were the least trusted source (25 percent vs 23 percent) - with one in two unable to say whether they trusted them.
TV was also seen as the most 'important' news source (56 percent) followed by newspapers (21 percent), the Internet (9 percent) and radio (9 percent).
One in four (28 percent) reported abandoning a news source over the last year after losing trust in its content.
A total of 10,230 adults were questioned by GlobeScan in the UK, USA, Brazil, Egypt, Germany, India, Indonesia, Nigeria, Russia, and South Korea in March and April.
Other key findings included:
- Strong demand across all countries and ages for news: seven in ten (72 percent) follow news closely every day - including two in three (67 percent) in the 18-24 age range.
- Two in three people believe news is reported accurately (65 percent), but more than half (57 percent) believe governments interfere too much with the media and only 42 percent think journalists can report freely. People are divided on whether the media covers all sides of a story, with 41 percent disagreeing.
- Nigerians believed most strongly that government interferes too much in the media (75 percent) followed by South Korea (71 percent), Brazil (64 percent), Indonesia (59 percent), Britain (58 percent), India (56 percent), and the US (52 percent).
- Three of four people (77 percent) prefer to check several news sources instead of relying on just one, especially Internet users.
More men (76 percent) than women (69 percent) said they followed the news closely every day.
- Trust in media has increased overall over the last four years - in Britain up from 29 percent to 47 percent and in the US from 52 percent to 59 percent.
- Younger people use online sources most - being the first choice among 19 percent aged between 18 and 24 compared to just 3 percent in the 55-64 age range. But 56 percent overall valued the opportunity to obtain news online - South Koreans being the most enthusiastic at 85 percent. Britain was on 57 percent and the US on 60 percent.