Survey reveals a diminishing trust in UK newspapers

Do you trust the media?

Phone hacking events in the summer and the continuing story appear to have dented the British public's confidence in the industry.

A report out from the Public Broadcasting Service (PBS) UK Trust Report suggests that the phone-hacking scandal has resulted in a deep level of mistrust from the UK public.

58 per cent say that the recent scandal has reduced their level of trust in the newspaper industry, while over half (51 per cent) say it has reduced their trust in the UK media as a whole.

The poll, of 1,108 UK adults shows that we trust the TV far more than any other outlet.

64 per cent saw TV as the most trusted media outlet,whilst 58 per cent said the same about radio and just 38 per cent trusted newspapers.

Meanwhile the damage done to the press over the hacking scandal is shown in the fact that Three in four people think media outlets sometimes, or frequently, lie to their audiences and over half say that content has been dumbed down in recent years

The survey comes as the American TV channel has launched in the UK.

Their General Manager UK,Richard Kingsbury said: ‘We wanted to understand the issue of trust in the media given that we are launching America’s most trusted broadcaster in the UK*. It is salutary how public trust has been corroded across all media and yet encouraging that television still enjoys a high level of trust.’