Americans’ confidence in newspapers and television news rebounded slightly in the past year, recovering from all-time lows?in 2007, according to an annual update on institutional confidence from Gallup “Americans’ Confidence in TV and Newspapers News.”
In 2011, 28% of Americans express “a great deal” or “quite a lot” of confidence in newspapers, compared to just 25% in 2010, and 27% said the same about television news in 2011, up from 22% in 2010. While this is an improvement from 2007 results when newspapers and TV news has the confidence vote from only 22% and 23% of American, respectively, the index is significantly behind the levels of trust seen through much of the 1990s and into 2003.
Men 18-29 Shift Trust to TV
Confidence in newspapers and television news increased across most key subgroups, with the biggest across-the-board improvements among 30- to 49-year-olds and men. The views of Americans aged 18 to 29 exhibited the most mixed year-to-year change, with this group showing a 10-point increase in confidence in television news but a 10-point decrease in confidence in newspapers.?Women who put confidence in newspapers increased from 25% in 2010, to 27% reporting this in 2011. Their opinion of TV news improved, from 26% to 30% trusting the source in 2011.
Republicans Keep Opinion of Newspapers
While members of this group remain among the most confident in each, their views are now on par with those of Democrats and liberals. Republicans also showed inconsistent movement in their opinions, registering a nine-point increase in their confidence in television news and essentially no change in their views of newspapers. Interestingly, considering the highly polarized nature of cable news, all other ideological groups increased their trust in television news to about the same degree,?by roughly five percentage?points of increase, year over year.
Results for this Gallup poll, which were released on June 27, are based on telephone interviews conducted June 9-12, 2011, with a random sample of 1,020 adults, aged 18 and older, living in all 50 U.S. states and the District of Columbia.
