American’s continue to distrust mainstream media. This according to a new Gallup poll with only 31% trusting the media.
Do you find yourself believing what is published or aired in mainstream media? If your answer is “no”, then you’re far from alone. According to a Gallup poll, a majority of American’s don’t trust what is seen in mainstream media. From Gallup:
Americans continue to register record-low trust in the mass media, with 31% expressing a “great deal” or “fair amount” of confidence in the media to report the news “fully, accurately and fairly,” similar to last year’s 32%. Americans’ trust in the media — such as newspapers, television and radio — first fell to 32% in 2016 and did so again last year.
For the third consecutive year, more U.S. adults have no trust at all in the media (36%) than trust it a great deal or fair amount. Another 33% of Americans express “not very much” confidence.
This isn’t very surprising, all things considered. Obviously, there are a lot of factors that go into this. There’s the massive mainstream media consolidation in the US where outlets are increasingly bought out by right wing billionaires and companies so they can amplify their bias as facts. This was beautifully highlighted by the famous Deadspin compilation a number of years ago:
Another factor is the general bias that seems to have become all too common when it comes to news stories that could potentially impact their bottom lines. This includes publishing or airing regular hit pieces on social media and the internet in general. Many people have been able to form communities and social bonds without the oversight of government or mainstream media. That has proven to be especially offensive to the powers that be and they have routinely called for scrapping Section 230 in a seeming effort to wipe out the internet entirely, tearing these communities and social connections apart.
Yes, a factor in all of this is partisanship. This was reflected in the poll:
As has been the case historically, partisans have different levels of confidence in the media to report the news fully, accurately and fairly. Currently, 54% of Democrats, 27% of independents and 12% of Republicans say they have a great deal or fair amount of trust in the media. Independents’ trust matches the record low in 2022, while Democrats’ and Republicans’ are statistically similar to their historical low points.
While people who identify as Republican show a steep decline in trust, it’s not as though the picture is particularly rosy for Democrats. While the decline isn’t as pronounced, the decline is definitely present. Between 2017 and 2022, there was a brief rise in trust before that trust started falling off of a cliff.
An additional factor is the constant ageism regularly the focus of major media outlets. Whether it is the constant barrage of “Millennial’s have killed _____” pieces and attacking anything people younger than boomers are known to be enjoying. This includes video games and social media in general. That appears to be reflected in the poll as well:
Over the past two decades, significant gaps in trust have also emerged by age. An analysis by age groups using aggregated data to increase sample sizes shows a 17-percentage-point gap in trust between the oldest Americans (those aged 65 and older) and those under age 50 — 43% vs. 26%, respectively.
This isn’t all that surprising. When the media is blaming you for everything and constantly reminding you that you are the reason why society is collapsing, how inclined are you to keep watching, reading, or listening? Simply out, the younger you are, the less likely you are to put up with that noise and there are plenty of things that can distract you so you can get away from all the horrible things happening in the world. Either way, when the media is constantly looking to court the older populations, the older populations are willing to stick around. Whether or not that is sustainable is another question entirely.
Gallup, unsurprisingly, concluded with this rather grim, albeit, seemingly accurate assessment of the situation:
The United States continues to suffer from a crisis in confidence in many institutions, including the federal government, its three branches, and those who either hold or are running for public office. In addition, trust in the fourth estate — the mass media — is at a new low. Local and state governments and the American people as a whole are the only entities garnering trust from more than half of U.S. adults.
What’s worth pointing out in all of this is that this is definitely not an exclusively American problem. Up here in Canada, we’ve been witnessing the same thing time and time again. Part of the problem up here, over top of everything else mentioned above, is the fact that the mainstream media is largely funded by the government these days. Fewer people are willing to consume that low quality garbage and, rather than adapt and change to be better, the mainstream media has opted to just receive never ending government handouts instead. This has raised serious questions over whether the media works for the people or for big business and government. Are you really going to criticize the government when they write your paychecks? Probably not.
At any rate, this is a problem that isn’t going to be going away any time soon. This especially thanks to the media’s unwillingness to change. As long as they keep bashing younger generations and pushing propaganda, more people will be finding themselves realizing that it’s not the kind of content worth consuming.
