Trust in Media Plummets to Record Low Across the Board, Especially Among Young People: Gallup

American trust in traditional media has hit record lows, according to a new poll from Gallup — and that included Democrats and young people.

In the study published on Monday, Gallup presented a picture of the lowest trust ever recorded when it came to traditional media such as TV, newspapers, and radio. Gallup has conducted the same survey since 1972, and since 2016, that trust has continually waned. Just 31 percent of those surveyed said that they trusted the media to be accurate and fair a “great deal” or a “fair amount,” while 36 percent had “no trust at all,” which is a slight improvement over last year’s numbers. Thirty-three percent said they had “not very much” confidence.

When it came to how partisans viewed the media, Democrats still had more confidence in the media than Republicans, but even their trust levels dropped:

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.

After dropping precipitously to the trend low of 51% in 2016, Democrats’ trust in the media ranged from 68% to 76% between 2017 and 2022 but fell to 58% last year and has edged down since.

Age was also a major factor in the lack of trust in the media, especially among younger people who mostly get their news online:

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.

Young Democrats trust the media far less than older Democrats do: 31% of Democrats aged 18 to 29 versus 74% of those aged 65 and older have a great deal or fair amount of confidence.

Gallup’s survey was conducted from September 3-15, 2024 on landline and cell phones with 1,007 voting-age adults from all 50 states and Washington, DC. The margin of sampling error was ±4 percentage points.

Have a tip for us? tips@mediaite.com