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I think the political party breakdown is very interesting as well. Trust from the Democratic side has not really dropped so much, but the mistrust from the Repu

I think the political party breakdown is very interesting as well. Trust from the Democratic side has not really dropped so much, but the mistrust from the Republican side looks absolutely staggering. 11% of Republicans trust the media - which is down from 14% 4 years ago. This doesn't seem like a big drop, but relatively, that is still a 20% decrease, in an already low amount. Something is deeply wrong when half of your adult population just flat out doesn't trust you. Where do these people get their news about the world? Do they just live in a constant state of mistrust?

ur-whale 5y ago
"These people", really?
- ameminator 5y ago
  I mean, I was specifically referring to people who mistrust the media. I think it's the media's fault for this - "these" people seem absolutely rational and correct in their mistrust. However, that doesn't obviate the need to have factual information about the world. Goings-on in local communities and nationally. So I am curious - where do they get their knowledge from? Do they trust local sources and ignore national ones? Are there specific personalities they listen to? Is it all Facebook and YouTube, all of the time? Or do they just not watch, or use large grains of salt when they do watch? Anyways, I am legitimately curious and I do think it's a problem that no one outside the left trusts the media. If that isn't a blatant condemnation of these media companies, who squandered that trust away, I don't know what is.
  - sseagull 5y ago
    > I think it's the media's fault for this Sort of, but not completely in my opinion. In some sense they give people what they want, the same as Facebook giving people content that they "engage" more with (which is often negative). Asking the media companies (who are as profit driven as anyone else) to be the adults is like asking social media companies to do the same. When it comes down to it, they will optimize for profit, and if not enough people are really interested in good journalism and reporting, that will get cut and replaced with sensationalism.
kaesar14 5y ago
Meh, maybe it's the Republicans who have the right idea on trusting the news media here vs. the Democrats. The problem is of course they're probably getting news from even less trustworthy places as you mention, but the news media simply doesn't deserve the trust of anyone in the general population.
- p_j_w 5y ago
  >Meh, maybe it's the Republicans who have the right idea on trusting the news media here vs. the Democrats. Given the percentage of Republicans that believe the 2020 election was actually stolen, how do you justify this view? Are the outlets that Republicans DO trust providing more reputable news, or are they spewing complete nonsense that is far more wrong than the mainstream news media? Every piece of evidence I've seen points to this rather than Republicans being right.
  - kaesar14 5y ago
    I'm not saying the Republicans have better sources of information or that they're better informed. I'm saying the mainstream news outlets are completely undeserving of our trust considering how agenda-driven and partisan most of them are. My contention is "trusting the mass media" is not inherently a positive quality.
    - p_j_w 5y ago
      >My contention is "trusting the mass media" is not inherently a positive quality. Maybe not inherently good, but few things are. Given that people who trust the mass media, on average, have a more accurate view of what's happening in the world, it most certainly seems to be better than the alternative, does it not?
      - kaesar14 5y ago
        The mass media peddled lies to sell us on atrocities like the Iraq War, refused to hold the Obama administration accountable for the prosecution of financial crimes, and often have a media bias pro the Democratic party in general. How much airtime would the Hunter Biden story have gotten on MSM if it’d been Eric Trump? Like yeah, maybe CNN believes climate change is real, but on the issues that matter they’ve failed a countless number of times to inform the public on issues that matter. Settling for their garbage is pointless.
pixl97 5y ago
A bigger question is "Do Republicans trust their politicians". Trusting politicians but not the media seems like a dangerous combination when it comes to questioning those politicians behavior and intent. >Where do these people get their news about the world? The scary answer is likely, Facebook. There is plenty of anecdotal evidence here, but if anyone has researched it, I'd love to see an article about it. > Do they just live in a constant state of mistrust Likely yes. Again, going back to FB anecdota, there seems to be a significant portion of the population that mistrusts everything. Immigrants, minorities, government, anyone outside of their social group. A large portion of these peoples post are motivated by/or based on some kind of fear.
rob74 5y ago
Yeah, that's also the real headline here I think, and the thing to be worried about: around 2000, every group was at around 50%, give and take a few points. Nowadays the "trust in media" is as polarized as anything else. No wonder Democrats and Republicans can barely agree on anything anymore...
CountDrewku 5y ago
DailyWire and NPR. Yes DW is bias but they are factual. I listen to NPR a lot less than I used to. Occasionally I'll hit up BBC or some other European news source. For the record I'd consider myself an independent. I voted Obama twice. So, I think it's more than just Republicans not trusting the media. MSM has lost a ton of viewers since their cash cow Trump left as well.
NineStarPoint 5y ago
It's worth noting that while Republican trust in "The Media" is 11%, Republican trust in Fox News is 57%. I'd say the answer to this sort of survey is in many ways more an artifact of all the officials and organizations who say "The Media" cannot be trusted, but of course this specific new source that I am a fan of is not "The Media". (Likewise, trust of local news organizations, something everyone would have a specific picture of in mind, is at 75%). There is definitely an extent to which trust in the 4th estate has dropped, but I personally think it's overblown by these sorts of questions. If I was to guess, much of the drop is a change in how people consider the media in their minds. Along with becoming a loaded phrase, we are now shown more of what the media we don't personally choose to consume looks like than ever before. Now when people hear "The Media" they don't just think about the media they choose, but the media that their faction of the internet rages about. I'd be very interested in the answer to something along the lines of "What's your favorite media source?" then "How much do you trust X?"
- BitwiseFool 5y ago
  You might be surprised to know that Fox has received a lot of backlash from TrumpWorld after how they handled the coverage of the 2020 election. A significant number of Republicans have basically disowned Fox and the DrudgeReport.
jimbokun 5y ago
In the last chart in the article, Republicans trust in media plummeted and Democrats trust in media skyrocketed right around 2016. Wonder what happened in that year to cause such a drastic change...

ur-whale 5y ago

"These people", really?

ameminator 5y ago
I mean, I was specifically referring to people who mistrust the media. I think it's the media's fault for this - "these" people seem absolutely rational and correct in their mistrust. However, that doesn't obviate the need to have factual information about the world. Goings-on in local communities and nationally. So I am curious - where do they get their knowledge from? Do they trust local sources and ignore national ones? Are there specific personalities they listen to? Is it all Facebook and YouTube, all of the time? Or do they just not watch, or use large grains of salt when they do watch? Anyways, I am legitimately curious and I do think it's a problem that no one outside the left trusts the media. If that isn't a blatant condemnation of these media companies, who squandered that trust away, I don't know what is.
- sseagull 5y ago
  > I think it's the media's fault for this Sort of, but not completely in my opinion. In some sense they give people what they want, the same as Facebook giving people content that they "engage" more with (which is often negative). Asking the media companies (who are as profit driven as anyone else) to be the adults is like asking social media companies to do the same. When it comes down to it, they will optimize for profit, and if not enough people are really interested in good journalism and reporting, that will get cut and replaced with sensationalism.

kaesar14 5y ago

Meh, maybe it's the Republicans who have the right idea on trusting the news media here vs. the Democrats. The problem is of course they're probably getting news from even less trustworthy places as you mention, but the news media simply doesn't deserve the trust of anyone in the general population.

p_j_w 5y ago
>Meh, maybe it's the Republicans who have the right idea on trusting the news media here vs. the Democrats. Given the percentage of Republicans that believe the 2020 election was actually stolen, how do you justify this view? Are the outlets that Republicans DO trust providing more reputable news, or are they spewing complete nonsense that is far more wrong than the mainstream news media? Every piece of evidence I've seen points to this rather than Republicans being right.
- kaesar14 5y ago
  I'm not saying the Republicans have better sources of information or that they're better informed. I'm saying the mainstream news outlets are completely undeserving of our trust considering how agenda-driven and partisan most of them are. My contention is "trusting the mass media" is not inherently a positive quality.
  - p_j_w 5y ago
    >My contention is "trusting the mass media" is not inherently a positive quality. Maybe not inherently good, but few things are. Given that people who trust the mass media, on average, have a more accurate view of what's happening in the world, it most certainly seems to be better than the alternative, does it not?
    - kaesar14 5y ago
      The mass media peddled lies to sell us on atrocities like the Iraq War, refused to hold the Obama administration accountable for the prosecution of financial crimes, and often have a media bias pro the Democratic party in general. How much airtime would the Hunter Biden story have gotten on MSM if it’d been Eric Trump? Like yeah, maybe CNN believes climate change is real, but on the issues that matter they’ve failed a countless number of times to inform the public on issues that matter. Settling for their garbage is pointless.

pixl97 5y ago

A bigger question is "Do Republicans trust their politicians". Trusting politicians but not the media seems like a dangerous combination when it comes to questioning those politicians behavior and intent. >Where do these people get their news about the world? The scary answer is likely, Facebook. There is plenty of anecdotal evidence here, but if anyone has researched it, I'd love to see an article about it. > Do they just live in a constant state of mistrust Likely yes. Again, going back to FB anecdota, there seems to be a significant portion of the population that mistrusts everything. Immigrants, minorities, government, anyone outside of their social group. A large portion of these peoples post are motivated by/or based on some kind of fear.

rob74 5y ago

Yeah, that's also the real headline here I think, and the thing to be worried about: around 2000, every group was at around 50%, give and take a few points. Nowadays the "trust in media" is as polarized as anything else. No wonder Democrats and Republicans can barely agree on anything anymore...

CountDrewku 5y ago

DailyWire and NPR. Yes DW is bias but they are factual. I listen to NPR a lot less than I used to. Occasionally I'll hit up BBC or some other European news source. For the record I'd consider myself an independent. I voted Obama twice. So, I think it's more than just Republicans not trusting the media. MSM has lost a ton of viewers since their cash cow Trump left as well.

NineStarPoint 5y ago

It's worth noting that while Republican trust in "The Media" is 11%, Republican trust in Fox News is 57%. I'd say the answer to this sort of survey is in many ways more an artifact of all the officials and organizations who say "The Media" cannot be trusted, but of course this specific new source that I am a fan of is not "The Media". (Likewise, trust of local news organizations, something everyone would have a specific picture of in mind, is at 75%). There is definitely an extent to which trust in the 4th estate has dropped, but I personally think it's overblown by these sorts of questions. If I was to guess, much of the drop is a change in how people consider the media in their minds. Along with becoming a loaded phrase, we are now shown more of what the media we don't personally choose to consume looks like than ever before. Now when people hear "The Media" they don't just think about the media they choose, but the media that their faction of the internet rages about. I'd be very interested in the answer to something along the lines of "What's your favorite media source?" then "How much do you trust X?"

BitwiseFool 5y ago
You might be surprised to know that Fox has received a lot of backlash from TrumpWorld after how they handled the coverage of the 2020 election. A significant number of Republicans have basically disowned Fox and the DrudgeReport.

jimbokun 5y ago

In the last chart in the article, Republicans trust in media plummeted and Democrats trust in media skyrocketed right around 2016. Wonder what happened in that year to cause such a drastic change...