In a world where reputation and credibility, either of ourselves as individuals or in the standing of institutions, is seen as an increasingly important form of measurement, the annual Edelman Trust Barometer survey this week showed some interesting shifts in what we value and how we express that confidence.

The annual survey of levels of trust around the world has some bad news for institutions, particularly in the US, which have suffered what the FT calls a “jarring crash” in trust after the first year of the Trump presidency, driven partly by a combination of misinformation and a civic dialogue that has become increasingly tribal in nature. The paper writes: “The collapse in trust seen in the US was the most stark any country has seen in the 17-year history of the survey, [which covered] 33,000 people in 28 countries, and came despite a growing economy… and a president vowing to make America great again.”

The root cause of this “staggering” lack of faith in government, which fell 14 points to 33 percent among how the company measures the ‘general’ population, and 30 points to 33 per cent among what it defines as the ‘informed’ public, is, the company says, “a lack of objective facts and rational discourse.” According to President and CEO Richard Edelman:

The United States is enduring an unprecedented crisis of trust. This is the first time that a massive drop in trust has not been linked to a pressing economic issue or catastrophe like the Fukushima nuclear disaster. In fact, it’s the ultimate irony that it’s happening at a time of prosperity, with the stock market and employment rates in the US at record highs.

And he says that at the other end of the spectrum, China is now at the top of the Trust Index for both the general population and the informed public. Institutions within the world’s second-largest economy saw significant increases in trust led by government, which jumped eight points to 84 per cent among the general population, and three points to 89 per cent within the informed public. Alongside China at the top of the Trust Index are India, Indonesia UAE and Singapore.

One interesting finding is an apparent revival of faith in experts and a decline in trust in our peers. Edelman says that “technical (63 per cent) and academic (61 per cent) experts distanced themselves as the most credible spokesperson from “a person like yourself,” which dropped six points to an all-time low of 54 percent.

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And there is a something of a mixed picture for news and information companies. For the first time media is the least trusted institution globally. In 22 of the 28 countries surveyed it is now distrusted. But this demise of confidence is driven primarily by a significant drop in trust in platforms, notably search engines and social media, rather than by established media brands. In the UK, for example, The Guardian writes that the “love affair with social media may be over” with just one-in-four Britons trusting news on social media.

Sixty-three percent of Edelman’s respondents say they “do not know how to tell good journalism from rumor or falsehoods” or if a piece of news was produced by a respected media organization. But at the same time, people seem to be increasingly turning to what are defined as “credentialed sources” of information as a gap opens up between trust in “journalism” and “platforms”.

The FT writes:

The search engines and social media sites that have become dominant distribution channels for news and information suffered a global loss of confidence, however, with just 51 per cent of people saying they trusted platforms such as Google and Facebook, down from 53 per cent.  Technology companies have come under growing scrutiny for their roles in distributing extremist content, fake news and Russian propaganda during recent elections.

Meanwhile, another important report on trust in media this week was produced by Gallup and the Knight Foundation, which surveyed more than 19,000 adults in the United States – the “most comprehensive picture to date of Americans’ usage and attitudes toward the media” and, in common with the Edelman study, found levels of trust in media splitting along ideological lines. According to the Columbia Journalism Review:

As media companies struggle to deal with the twin threat of financial collapse and Trump’s accusations of “fake news,” many have focused on trust as a solution. If readers trust them – or so the theory goes – they won’t be seen as fake news, and then readers might be inclined to support them financially. Unfortunately, the relationship between trust and journalism is more complicated than we like to admit…

 Most Americans don’t trust the news media to do a good job of making sure they have the knowledge they need to be informed about public affairs, but it also found trust was split along ideological lines: Almost 70 percent of Republicans said they had an unfavorable opinion of the media, compared with 54 percent of Democrats. When looking at a combination of factors, the trust level among Republican voters was just 21 percent, while Democrats scored the press twice as high.

And of course these new examinations of trust come at a time of significant debate over Facebook ‘s proposed changes to its how its news feed will work, with founder Mark Zuckerberg saying that the company plans to rank news organizations by credibility based on user feedback and diminish its role as an arbiter of the news people see.

BuzzFeed says it has details of the survey Facebook will use to determine trustworthiness. Alex Kantrowitz writes that the idea “..was met with harsh criticism and questions. Top among them is whether it’s wise for Facebook to entrust decisions on news trustworthiness to a user base that has already widely spread fake news and content created by a Kremlin-linked troll farm.”

The debate also saw Rupert Murdoch calling for Facebook to pay something similar to a cable TV “carriage fee” to trusted publishers; yet there’s uncertainty about the amount of content from established news organizations that actually makes it into users’ feeds. Meanwhile smaller independent news brands would argue that if they ended up being excluded from Facebook feeds, it would have the impact of denying them access to probably the most important distribution platform in growing their audience.

Efforts to rebuild trust, particularly among younger readers have taken on increasing importance at many media organizations, as they address how to preserve trust and strengthen the relationship with the audiences that will sustain them – in whatever form their content is distributed – in years to come. There are various examples of initiatives designed to amplify news literacy and increase reader loyalty. Locally, for example, the Irish News is running a young reader scheme while the Financial Times has just made free online subscriptions available to 16-19 year old school students anywhere in the world.

Finally, as if we didn’t realize it, we were reminded this week that the challenges facing modern journalism are very real; even if they sometimes seem abstract. And in a context where a starting point of a fundamental lack of trust becomes excessively polarized, it’s probably easier to understand how it can be a short step from being called “enemies of the people” to dealing with something like this…

 

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Also published on Medium.