Media

POLL: 53% Of Americans Don’t Trust ‘Traditional Media’

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An April poll from TIPP Insights found that more than half of Americans do not trust “traditional media.”

The poll asked Americans how much they trust “traditional” or “established” media, which includes outlets like the Washington Post, New York Times, NPR, or CBS News.

40% of respondents said that they didn’t trust traditional media. Just 15% said that they had “a lot of trust” in traditional media, while 25% said that they had “quite a bit of trust.”

28% said that they had “little trust” in traditional media, and 25% had no trust at all, the survey found. (RELATED: Trust In ‘Traditional Media’ Hits All-Time Low In America)

TIPP also asked how much trust people had in “alternative media” to report the news accurately and fairly, and gave examples of the New York Post, Washington Times, Newsmax, The Daily Caller, and RealClearPolitics. 29% of Americans said they trusted alternative media – 10% had “a lot of trust” and 19% had “quite a bit of trust.” Meanwhile, 60% of people said they did not trust alternative media – 22% had “no trust at all” and 38% had “little trust.”

The online survey was conducted between April 28 and April 30 and asked 1,300 people about their trust in media.

TIPP’s media trust index, which converts percentages to an index ranging from 0 to 100, found that trust in both traditional and alternative media has significantly declined over time. Below 50 indicates a lack of trust, above 50 indicates trust and 50 is the neutral point on the index. (RELATED: This Is Why Nobody Believes The Media Anymore)

For traditional media, the index fell from 51.0 in March of 2021 to 47.1 in April. It fell again in May to 44.1. For alternative media, that number declined from 44.8 in March, to 43.9 in April, and finally to 37.9 in May.

Democrats were most likely to trust both traditional or alternative media, while Republicans and Independents had lower trust in the media.

In May, the trust index for Democrats was at 64.1 for traditional media and 48.1 for alternative media. For Republicans, those numbers were 23.9 for traditional media and 30.0 for alternative media, and for independents, the index was at 34.5 for traditional media and 31.7 for alternative media.