WASHINGTON, D.C. -- After
registering slightly higher trust last year, Americans' confidence in the
media's ability to report "the news fully, accurately, and fairly"
has returned to its previous all-time low of 40%. Americans' trust in mass
media has generally been edging downward from higher levels in the late 1990s
and the early 2000s.
Prior to 2004, Americans placed more
trust in mass media than they do now, with slim majorities saying they had a
"great deal" or "fair amount" of trust. But over the course
of former President George W. Bush's re-election season, the level of trust
fell significantly, from 54% in 2003 to 44% in 2004. Although trust levels
rebounded to 50% in 2005, they have failed to reach a full majority since.
Americans' trust in the media in
recent years has dropped slightly in election years, including 2008, 2010,
2012, and again this year -- only to edge its way back up again in the
following odd-numbered years. Although the differences between the drops and
the recoveries are not large, they suggest that something about national
elections triggers skepticism about the accuracy of the news media's reporting.
Among Democrats, Trust in Media at a
14-Year Low
Trust among Democrats, who have
traditionally expressed much higher levels of confidence in the media than
Republicans have, dropped to a 14-year low of 54% in 2014. Republicans' trust
in the media is at 27%, one percentage point above their all-time low, while
independents held steady at 38% -- up one point from 37% in 2013.
Sharp Uptick in Americans Who Think
News Media Are "Too Conservative"
As has been the case historically,
Americans are most likely to feel the news media are "too liberal"
(44%) rather than "too conservative," though this perceived liberal
bias is now on the lower side of the trend. One in three (34%) say the media
are "just about right" in terms of their coverage -- down slightly
from 37% last year.
Nearly one in five Americans (19%)
say the media are too conservative, which is still relatively low, but the
highest such percentage since 2006. This is up six points from 2013 -- the
sharpest increase in the percentage of Americans who feel the news skews too
far right since Gallup began asking the question in 2001.
Conservatives (70%) are far more
likely than liberals (15%) to perceive the media as too liberal. Moderates'
views are closer to liberals, with 35% calling the media too liberal. Likewise,
relatively few moderates -- similar to conservatives -- think the media are too
conservative.
Democrats -- with a small majority
of 52% -- are most likely to think the media are just about right, while a mere
18% of Republicans feel this way about the news. More than seven in 10
Republicans say the media are too liberal.
Bottom Line
Though a sizable percentage of
Americans continue to have a great deal or fair amount of trust in the media,
Americans' overall trust in the Fourth Estate continues to be significantly
lower now than it was 10 to 15 years ago.
As the media expand into new domains
of news reporting via social media networks and new mobile technology,
Americans may be growing disenchanted with what they consider "mainstream"
news as they seek out their own personal veins of getting information. At the
same time, confidence
is down across many institutions, and
a general lack in trust overall could be at play.
Americans' opinions about the media
appear affected in election years, however. Americans' trust in the media will
likely recover slightly in 2015 with the absence of political campaigns. But
the overarching pattern of the past decade has shown few signs of slowing the
decline of faith in mass media as a whole.
Survey
Methods
Results for this Gallup poll are
based on telephone interviews conducted Sept. 4-7, 2014, with a random sample
of 1,017 adults, aged 18 and older, living in all 50 U.S. states and the
District of Columbia. For results based on the total sample of national adults,
the margin of sampling error is ±4 percentage points at the 95% confidence
level.
Interviews are conducted with
respondents on landline telephones and cellular phones, with interviews
conducted in Spanish for respondents who are primarily Spanish-speaking. Each
sample of national adults includes a minimum quota of 50% cellphone respondents
and 50% landline respondents, with additional minimum quotas by time zone
within region. Landline and cellular telephone numbers are selected using
random-digit-dial methods. Landline respondents are chosen at random within
each household on the basis of which member had the most recent birthday.
Samples are weighted to correct for
unequal selection probability, nonresponse, and double coverage of landline and
cell users in the two sampling frames. They are also weighted to match the
national demographics of gender, age, race, Hispanic ethnicity, education,
region, population density, and phone status (cellphone only/landline
only/both, and cellphone mostly). Demographic weighting targets are based on
the most recent Current Population Survey figures for the aged 18 and older
U.S. population. Phone status targets are based on the most recent National
Health Interview Survey. Population density targets are based on the most
recent U.S. census. All reported margins of sampling error include the computed
design effects for weighting. In addition to sampling error, question wording
and practical difficulties in conducting surveys can introduce error or bias
into the findings of public opinion polls.
View
survey methodology, complete question responses, and trends. For more details on Gallup's polling methodology, visit www.gallup.com.
Source:http://www.gallup.com/poll/176042/trust-mass-media-returns-time-low.aspx
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