Distrust is deepening overall, Edelman’s 2018 barometer finds
The annual report on consumer confidence shows widespread skepticism, as ‘media’ becomes a catch-all source of sketchy information, but true journalism sees a nascent renaissance.
The U.S. has yet to rebound from its credibility crisis.
That’s the biggest takeaway form the annual report from Edelman covering public trust in major institutions. The report broke down respondents into two groups, informed and general population. In neither category did institutions from business to government show an increase in public trust.
In the “informed public” category, institutions lost ground.
According to an average measure of the loss of trust from 2017 to 2018, the U.S. showed the largest drop in trust ever recorded. However, the problem appears to be global, with 20 out of 28 countries examined proved to be “distrusters.”
A loss of trust in “media” as an institution is coupled with widely disparate notions of which channels and content generators constitute media today. Social media, brands, influencers and journalists are seen as different elements of the media, which people classify as both content and platforms, including social media and news apps.
According to certain measures, the media umbrella category is the least-trusted institution.
Overall, trust in those platforms declined, but journalism’s credibility has rebounded.
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