Americans’ view of the media has steadily declined as coverage has become increasingly biased and more high-profile mistakes have become public, but new polling shows it is lower than ever.
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Gallup released new polling data Monday showing that Americans have never had worse views of the media.
“A majority of Americans have expressed confidence in newspapers only once — in 1979, when 51% did. But there is a wide margin between that and the second-highest readings of 39% in 1973 and 1990,” Gallup said. “The trend average for newspapers is 30%, well above the latest reading of 16%, which is the first time the measure has fallen below 20%. The percentage of Americans who say they have “very little” or volunteer that they have no confidence is currently the highest on record, at 46%.”
The poll also found that only “16% of Americans have a great deal/quite a lot of confidence in newspapers” while “11% have same the degree of confidence in television news.”
The survey found Democrats are still low but more confident in the media.
“Confidence in television news has never been higher than its initial 46% reading in 1993 and has averaged 27%, considerably higher than the current 11%,” Gallup said. “This is the fourth consecutive year that confidence in TV news is below 20%. And for just the second time in the trend, a majority of Americans, 53%, now say they have very little or no confidence at all in TV news.”
