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The number of people who view government and media as divisive forces in society grew sharply during the past year, according to Edelman’s 22nd Trust Barometer released today.
Nearly half (48 percent) of respondents living in 24 nations surveyed by Edelman call government a dividing force, compared to 36 percent who view it as a unifying factor.
Media did a little better, chalking up an 11 percent gap between dividing (46 percent) and unifying force (31 percent).
Edelman did not ask the dividing/unifying question in China, Russia and Thailand.
NGOs and businesses reported big increases in the perception that they are unifying forces, according to the Barometer.
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Half of those surveyed view NGOs as unifiers vs. 29 percent seeing them as dividers.
Business enjoyed a 14 percent gap between being a unifying (45 percent) or dividing force (31 percent).
More than three-quarters of respondents (76 percent) worry about false information or fake news being used as a weapon.
That was up four points among the Global 27 countries surveyed.
Spain registered the most concern about fake news at 84 percent, while the Netherlands showed the least worry at 63 percent.
China posted a nine percent gain to 80 percent in concern about fake news. Russia was up four points to 78 percent and the US was up two percent to 74 percent.
An ever-growing tidal wave of information has given communications pros more data than ever to work with, but the ability to connect the dots provided by that data is in short supply.
A new Burson report finds that a general lack of trust in social and political institutions has spilled over into the business arena.
Research has always been a “black box,” but with the adoption of new technologies and reduced budgets, less rigorous and even fraudulent methods have proliferated at the hands of inexperienced vendors.
Changing marketing forces continued to push back against both growth and profitability for PR agencies in 2025, according to a recently released report from Gould+Partners.
Japan has kept its position as the country with the strongest ties to the U.S. for the third consecutive year in the recently released 2026 BGR Impact Index.
