Trust In Media Among Americans Hits Record Low: Gallup Survey

Authored by Zachary Stieber via The Epoch Times,

Trust in media among Americans has hit a record low, according to a Gallup survey released on Oct. 2.

Just 28 percent of adults told Gallup that they have a great deal or fair amount of trust in the media.

That’s a decline from 31 percent in 2024, 32 percent in 2023, 40 percent in 2020, and a peak of 72 percent in 1976, shortly after Gallup first started asking about trust in the media in 1972.

In the latest survey, carried out Sept 2–26, 8 percent of respondents said they have a great deal of confidence in mass media, such as newspapers and television, to report the news fully, accurately, and fairly.

Twenty percent said they have a fair amount of confidence, 36 percent of respondents said they have not very much confidence, and 34 percent said they have none at all.

When divided by party affiliation, Republicans were the most likely to say they do not have confidence in the media. Sixty-two percent of Republican respondents said they have no confidence, and 30 percent said they have little confidence. Just 5 percent expressed a fair amount of confidence in the press, with the remaining 3 percent expressing a great deal of confidence.

Among independents, 7 percent said they have a great deal of trust in the media, 21 percent said they have a fair amount of trust, 38 percent said they have not very much trust, 32 percent said none at all, and 2 percent said they did not know.

Most Democrats—51 percent—have a great deal or fair amount of confidence in the media. While that was a majority of Democrat respondents, it is also a tie for the record low among Democrats. Thirty-nine percent said they have a little trust, 9 percent said they have no trust, and 1 percent said they were not sure.

Older adults were more likely to express trust in the media. Thirty-seven percent of adults aged 55 and older said they have a great deal or fair amount of trust in the media, compared to 21 percent of people aged 35 to 54 and 24 percent of younger adults.

“With confidence fractured along partisan and generational lines, the challenge for news organizations is not only to deliver fair and accurate reporting but also to regain credibility across an increasingly polarized and skeptical public,” Gallup stated.

The survey from September was conducted over the telephone with adults living in all 50 states and the District of Columbia. The results are based on a random sample of 1,000 respondents. The margin of sampling error was plus/minus 4 percent.