A new study by market research company Roy Morgan has found that Australians trust the ABC the most, and distrust Facebook the most.
Roy Morgan Research has been conducting quarterly consumer surveys asking Australians which brands they trust and distrust since October 2017, and to date have interviewed about 4000 people.
In May, the company conducted an additional survey of 1,111 Australians asking which media they trust and distrust, as well as why they trusted or distrusted nominated media brands.
The company then took the trust score of each nominated media brand and subtracted the distrust score to arrive at a Net Trust Score (NTS).
It found that while Facebook – and social media generally – are deeply distrusted in Australia, the ABC is the nation’s most trusted media organisation.
Half of all Australians (47 per cent) distrust social media, compared to only 9 per cent who distrust the ABC.
According to Roy Morgan CEO Michele Levine, trust is now firmly on corporate Australia’s agenda, but distrust is a critical measure everyone’s ignoring.
“The absence of the voices of distrust should be alarming every CEO and company director,” Ms Levine said.
“Distrust is where our deepest fears, pain, and betrayal surface – the shock of discovering we were foolish to trust too much.
“And nowhere is that sense of betrayal more profound than in our media brands.”
Ms Levine said the company subtracted distrust from trust to achieve a Net Trust Score (NTS), which revealed a minus NTS for the Australian media industry overall.
“The banking industry has an NTS of minus 18 per cent, compared to the media industry with an NTS of minus 7 per cent,” Ms Levine said.
“So while media industry is less toxic than banks, it is still in negative territory.”
Media Category Net Trust Scores (distrust score subtracted from trust score):
- Social Media: minus 42 per cent
- Television: minus 16 per cent
- Newspapers: minus 13 per cent
- Internet: minus 7 per cent
- Magazines: minus 4 per cent
- Radio: minus 2 per cent
After the ABC, SBS is Australia’s second most trusted media brand and Fairfax comes in third as the only other media brand with a positive NTS.
SBS is also Australia’s most trusted commercial television network with an NTS of +5 per cent – well ahead of the other three commercial networks, all of which have an NTS of between minus 6 and minus 10 per cent.
“Australians told us that their trust of the ABC is driven by its lack of bias and impartiality, quality journalism and ethics,” Ms Levine said.
“Their distrust of Facebook and social media is driven by fake news, manipulated truth, false statistics and fake audience measurement.”
According to survey respondents, their top 5 drivers of media distrust are:
- False news or fake news
- Bias
- News that is sensationalised and/or a focus on controversial stories
- Pushing commercial or political agenda
- Too much advertising
