A new survey exploring the impact of media on democracy revealed that half of American respondents believe that national news organizations intend to mislead or misinform the public.
The survey, released Wednesday by Gallup and the Knight Foundation, found that only 26 percent of Americans have a favorable opinion of the national news media, the lowest level in five years. More than half of Americans, or 53 percent, have an unfavorable view of the media.
About half of Americans said they do not trust the news media to be truthful. When asked if they believed that most national news organizations do not intend to mislead, misinform, or persuade the public, 50 percent of respondents disagreed. Only 25 percent agreed.
A majority of respondents, or 52 percent, said they did not agree that national news outlets care about the best interest of their audiences. Only 23 percent said they believed the outlets care.
“That was pretty striking for us,” Gallup consultant Sarah Fioroni told the Associated Press.
Declining trust in the national media was predominantly driven by political independents, the survey found. In 2022, two-thirds of independent voters held very or somewhat unfavorable opinions of American news media, up from 48 percent in 2019.
Republican distrust of national media has also increased, although to a lesser extent than independents. Nearly 80 percent of Republicans surveyed held unfavorable views of American media, a nearly 15 percentage point jump in the same period.
All told, only 16 percent of independents and eight percent of Republicans have a positive feeling towards national news outlets.
“Americans don’t seem to think that the national news organizations care about the overall impact of their reporting on the society,” John Sands, Knight’s senior director for media and democracy, told the AP.
Plummeting confidence amongst independents “cannot be wholly attributed to souring attitudes among Republican-leaning independents,” according to an analysis of the survey. “Among true independents who do not lean Republican or Democrat, 64% view the news media unfavorably—essentially no different from the larger sample of independents that includes those who lean toward a party.”
The polling further showed that Democrats have also seen their confidence in national news media shaken. While 45 percent of Democrats still have a very or somewhat favorable impression of national news companies, 28 percent hold the opposite view.
Younger generational cohorts, including Gen Z and Millennials, were less like to have favorable opinions of mainstream media platforms and more likely to hold natural or somewhat unfavorable views.
The survey, which drew on a sample of about 6,000 Americans, found that faith in local news outlets remains stronger than in national organizations.
While half of respondents said they believe national outlets aim to “mislead, misinform, or persuade,” only 25 percent of Americans believed that about local news outlets. A majority of respondents said that such outfits care about how their reporting impacts local communities and they care about audience’s best interests.
Three-quarters of respondents had either a high or moderate degree of trust in local news organizations.