Trust in the media in Australia is at a record low of just 31% and consumers say they struggle to tell the difference between fake news and facts, according to a global survey of trust and credibility in institutions.
The Edelman Trust Barometer is an 18-year annual study of attitudes across 28 countries towards four pillars of society: government, non-government organisations, business and the media.
Australia and Singapore were the only two countries to have declined in trust across all four institutions this year: Australia’s trust in NGOs is 48%, business 45%, government 35% and media 31%.
Only Turkey, on 30%, scored lower on the question of trust in the media.
However the news is not all bad for the Australian media as the public appears to recognise the difference between traditional media outlets and social media, and is far more willing to trust the journalism in newspapers and online media than Facebook and Twitter.
The diminishing trust in media overall is driven by the public’s growing distaste for social media and the way it spreads fake news, according to the head of Edelman Australia, Steve Spurr.
“We are starting to see this year for the first time, very clearly from my point of view, that the public sees the difference between the different types of media they consume,” Spurr told Guardian Australia.
“They understand where they go to consume and why.”
It’s a similar picture in the UK, where only 24% of the population trust the likes of Twitter, Facebook and Instagram when looking for news and information.
Spurr said fake news and the role it played in the election of Donald Trump in the US had put the the concept of false information spread on Facebook and other social media platforms front and centre of the public’s consciousness.
“Sixty-five per cent say they are not even sure how to tell what is true and what’s not true and 57% are worried about fake news being used as a weapon of propaganda,” Spurr said.
“It shows that people are really listening and observing what is happening in those debates and now they are sad about how that impacts them.”
When you break the findings down they reveal a growing level of respect for journalism and trusted mastheads among the public, although there is a wariness of media outlets using clickbait to drive up profits.
Australia’s trust in traditional news media and journalism has rebounded from 46% in 2017 to 61% in 2018. The global average for trust in journalism is 62%, so Australia is on par with the rest of the world.
Trust in online media has also increased, from 37% in 2017, to 43% in 2018. The global average is 55%. Spurr said the public valued simple well-told stories, news that didn’t focus on celebrity and investigative journalism.
“Year on year, the gloss has come off social media,” Spurr said. Trust in social media has dropped from 28% last year to 23% in Australia, just below the UK, where it is 24% – and well below the global average of 40%.
Interestingly, trust in search engines has also dropped significantly, from 58% to 47%.
“The media is chasing too much sensationalism and celebrity,” Spurr said.
“The public want the media to be a watchdog on the other institutions but what they are seeing is the Australian media sacrificing accuracy to break the story early. Seventy-one per cent of them believe that Australian media are more interested in attracting an audience than telling the public what they really need to know.”
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