Americans identifying as Republican exhibit a marked lack of trust in national news organizations, and one that has been virtually cut in half in the last five years, according to a recent analysis by the Pew Research Center.
Pew’s analysis, which is part of the nonpartisan think tank’s ongoing investigation into the state of news and journalism in the digital age, discovered a gap in trust of national news organizations that is widening among partisan lines.
Overall, nearly six-in-ten Americans (58 percent) claim to have at least some trust in the information they receive from national news organizations. According to Pew, this is the smallest share since 2016 and accounts for a seven-point drop from the 65 percent reported in late 2019.
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| The percentage of U.S. adults who say they have a lot or some trust in the information that comes from national news organizations. |
However, it appears that much of this loss in trust is being driven by sharp trust declines among Republicans. While nearly eight-in-ten Democrats and Democratic-leaning independents (78 percent) claim they have “a lot” or “some” trust in the information they get from national news organizations, only 35 percent of Republicans said the same.
According to Pew, this 43 percentage-point partisan gap is the largest reported at any time that this question has been asked since 2016 and grows even wider—to 53 points—when contrasted between liberal Democrats (83 percent) and conservative Republicans (30 percent).
The Pew analysis also found that the number of Republicans who trust national news organizations is shrinking: The 35 percent of Republicans who said they currently have at least some trust in the national news is half of the 70 percent who said they trusted the media five years ago. Overall, Republicans’ trust in the news has dropped 14 points since just late 2019, where it was gauged at 49 percent. By contrast, Democrats have remained more or less consistent in their trust in the media for the past five years, ranging somewhere between 78 percent and 86 percent.
Only 12 percent of Americans said they have “a lot” of trust in the information that comes from national news organizations.
Pew’s analysis was based on a survey of more than 10,600 U.S. adults drawn from the Center’s American Trends Panel, a nationally representative list of randomly selected respondents. Surveys were conducted between June 14 and June 27.
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