American trust in the mainstream media hits an all-time low with just 18% of Republicans saying they believe journalists after the 2020 election
Trust in the media is at an all-time low, with less than half of all Americans and just 18 percent of Republicans saying they trust traditional media outlets.
The new data from Edelman's 2021 Trust Barometer was shared with Axios, and found that trust in social media has also hit an all-time low of just 27 percent.
'This is the era of information bankruptcy,' said Richard Edelman, CEO of Edelman, in a statement.
'We've been lied to by those in charge, and media sources are seen as politicized and bias[ed]. The result is a lack of quality information and increased divisiveness,' he said.
The poll found that 56 percent of Americans agree with the statement that 'Journalists and reporters are purposely trying to mislead people by saying things they know are false or gross exaggerations.'
Trust in traditional media hit an all-time low this year, with just 46% of Americans saying they trust traditional media
The poll found a 15-point drop in media trust among Trump supporters (18 percent) since November, opening up a staggering 39-point gap with Biden voters
Nearly the same share, 58 percent, think that 'most news organizations are more concerned with supporting an ideology or political position than with informing the public.'
These figures are close to the average across 27 countries included in the Edelman survey, indicating that fading trust in the media is not an American phenomenon.
Republican trust in traditional media plunged following the 2020 election, when Donald Trump pressed claims of election theft that were not borne out by facts, and were rejected by traditional media outlets.
The poll found a 15-point drop in media trust among Trump supporters (18 percent) since November, opening up a staggering 39-point gap with Biden voters (57 percent).
Among the countries surveyed, trust in the media was highest in Indonesia and China, and lowest in Russia and Japan.
Followers of QAnon were told to 'trust the plan', not the media, and viewed journalists as either clueless or in cahoots with a globalist Satan-worshiping cabal of pedophiles
The US figures are similar to the global average (above) from 27 countries on questions of media trust, indicating that it is a worldwide phenomenon
'Fifty-seven percent of Americans find the political and ideological polarization so extreme that they believe the U.S. is in the midst of a cold civil war,' Edelman said.
'The violent storming of the U.S. Capitol last week and the fact that only one-third of people are willing to get a Covid vaccine as soon as possible crystallize the dangers of misinformation,' the CEO continued.
The survey found that business has emerged in the pandemic as the most trusted institution, with 61 percent trust worldwide.
Business is the only institution deemed ethical and competent by a majority in the survey, with business outscoring government by 48 points on competency and approaching NGOs in ethics.
Media trust was the lowest in Russia and Japan, and highest in China and Indonesia
Edelman said that trust continues to move local, with respondents placing even higher reliance on ‘my employer’ at 76 percent, and ‘my employer CEO’ at 63 percent.
International trust dropped precipitously in the world's two largest economies.
Respondents from the other markets surveyed deeply distrust the U.S. (40 percent) and Chinese (30 percent) governments.
Trust among Chinese citizens in their own country’s institutions fell 18 points in the last six months, to 72 percent.
Trust among American citizens for their own government, in the bottom quartile of countries as of November, dropped a further 5 points post-election (43 percent), a score which would place it ahead of only Japan and Russia.
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