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More people trust the Government than the media – survey

Trust in the media is increasing in the UK – but it is still one of the few countries where more people trust the Government, according to a new poll.

The survey, for the BBC, Reuters and the Media Center, covered media around the world and questioned 1,000 adults from the UK by telephone by GlobeScan in March.

It found that trust in media has increased overall over the last four years – up from 29 per cent to 47 per cent in Britain during that time.

But both America and the UK bucked the trend set by the rest of the world with 47 per cent in the UK trusting the media, as opposed to 51 per cent trusting the Government. The figures for America were 59 per cent vs 67 per cent.

UK citizens are much less likely than citizens in other parts of the world to think that the media reports all sides of a story, with 64 per cent disagreeing that the media achieves this.

Also, 43 per cent disagree that the media reports news accurately.

But UK newspapers, both national and regional, achieve a 75 per cent rating for “a lot” or “some” trust, coming behind television, and news via friends and family.

GlobeScan president, Doug Miller, said: “With public trust levels in general eroding over the last four years, it is noteworthy that the media has retained or increased its trust in most of the ten countries in the same period.”

“The poll suggests that media is generally trusted across the world – more so than national governments, particularly in the developing world.

“National TV is still the most trusted news source by a wide margin, although the Internet is gaining ground among the young.

“The jury is still out on ‘blogs’ – just as many people distrust them as trust them.”

There is strong demand across all countries and ages for news, with seven in ten (72 per cent) following the news closely every day — including two in three (67 per cent) in the 18-24 age range.

The most important news sources for UK citizens in a typical week are television (mentioned first by 55 per cent), newspapers (19 per cent), radio (12 per cent), and the Internet (eight per cent).

As in the United States, it is men who are most likely to name the Internet as their most important news source, 11 per cent compared to five per cent of women.

When asked which news sources they trust the most, UK citizens give the highest ratings to national television (86 per cent a lot or some trust), friends and family (78 per cent), national, regional and local newspapers (both 75 per cent), and public broadcast radio (67 per cent). The lowest ratings go to blogs (24 per cent), news web sites on the Internet (44 per cent), and international newspapers (55 per cent).

The most trusted specific news sources mentioned spontaneously in the UK include BBC News (mentioned by 32 per cent), ITV News (eight per cent), Sky News (seven per cent), the Daily Mail (three per cent), the BBC News website (three per cent), BBC Radio (with the World Service and national radio each receiving two per cent), the Times (two per cent), the Daily Telegraph (two per cent), the Guardian (one per cent), and Google (one per cent).