Gallup: Less Than One Fourth of Americans Trust Newspapers

A new poll on newspapers and television news shows that Americans’ confidence in the news industry continues to erode in this era of mass communications, reaching a low not seen since 2007.

The Gallup polling firm finds that trust in newspapers has fallen to 23 percent. This is down from 25 percent in 2012 and 28 percent in 2011.

The previous low was recorded in 2007 when trust in newspapers reached 22 percent.

Trust in newspapers has steadily declined since its 1979 high of 51 percent, Gallup reports.

Television news fares no better in the estimation of those polled by Gallup. Trust in TV news tied that of newspapers, with 23 percent saying they trust TV news sources. This is down from a 1993 high of 46 percent–when Gallup first began asking about it.

The polling giant cautions, however, that the TV question does not distinguish between cable and network news, with both sources lumped in together in the question.

Naturally, liberals trust newspapers more than conservatives.

Conservatives’ confidence in newspapers, at 15%, is down from 21% in 2012 and 2011. Moderates’ confidence has been trending downward for the past two years, and is now at 25%. Liberals remain the most confident in newspapers–although not by much–with 31% putting a great deal or quite a lot of confidence in them this year.

Confidence in newspapers by party mirrors the ideological findings. Democrats are most confident, at 33%, while independents are less so, at 19%, and Republicans, at 16%, are least confident.

For conservatives, the findings were similar for TV news, with only 18 percent saying they trust it. Liberals and moderates, however, have seen an upswing in trust for TV news. Moderates trust their televisions at a rate of 24 percent while liberals trust it at 26 percent.

Women trust all news sources more than men, and educated people trust the news less than the uneducated, but regardless of class, education, or party affiliation, trust in the news is below 31 percent in every case, showing that the media is not well-liked by most Americans.