This past summer, Vividata, in partnership with Kantar, released the Canadian Trust in News Study. This study examined how Canadians feel about their news sources in the era of “fake news,” their preferred and trusted sources, and the importance of quality journalism.
As far as trust in news coverage of politics and elections, digital media is losing out in terms of the impact of “fake news” on trust. Sixty-six percent of news audiences claim to trust social media less as a result of “fake news.” Also, losing audience sentiment regarding trust are Web sites or apps of digital-only news outlets. It is not surprising digital-only channels are losing audience trust, as the creators of “fake news” rely on these channels to spread their content.
Traditional, offline news sources fare much better. Printed national daily newspapers have gained the most trust since the proliferation of “fake news,” followed by radio and then television. Printed local newspapers have the highest retainment of trust at 76%, followed by printed magazines.
The trusted status of traditional news media clearly impacts this dynamic of traditional news organisations having a much greater reserve of audience trust.
To read more about effective ways to tackle fake news, and audience’s attitudes towards news, please read the rest of this analysis, by Rahul Sethi, insights manager with Vividata, click here.
