The confidence of U.S. citizens in American newspaper and television news has fallen to all-time lows, according to a survey conducted by Gallup, between June 1 and 20.
It was not always so dismal. Back in 1979, for example, newspapers garnered their highest level of confidence, at 51 percent. The second-highest reading was at 39 percent, scored in 1973 and 1990. The percentage of Americans who have no or “very little” confidence in newspapers was a record-high 46 percent in the recent poll.
When it comes to television, the highest confidence reading came in 1993, at 46 percent. The current level of 11 percent is the fourth consecutive year that people’s confidence in TV news has been below 20 percent. More than 50 percent of Americans have little or no confidence in television news.
Republicans had the lowest confidence in newspapers, at just 5 percent, followed by independents at 12 percent. In contrast, 35 percent of Democrats expressed confidence in newspaper news. Democrat confidence had hit a peak range of 42–46 percent during the Trump administration, but has fallen since President Joe Biden took office.
Recovering Media Trust
According to Joe Concha, contributor and media analyst at Fox News, there is now a considerable gray area between partisan opinion and actual news. He believes media outlets can improve viewer confidence by resolving this issue.While 55 percent of journalists in the survey insisted that every side does not always deserve equal coverage in the news, 76 percent of Americans wanted the news to cover all sides equally.