Study: The ABC Is Australia’s Most Trusted Media Source

Following on from last week’s news that the Coalition wanted to privatise it, comes results of a new study out today that says the ABC is Australia’s most trusted media source.

Conducted in May by Roy Morgan, the MEDIA Net Trust Survey reveals that while social media is deeply distrusted in Australia, the ABC is by far the nation’s most trusted media organisation.

Half of all Australians (47 per cent) distrust social media, compared to only nine 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 the critical measure everyone’s ignoring,” she said.

“The absence of the voices of distrust should be alarming every CEO and company director.

“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.

“When we subtract distrust from trust to achieve a Net Trust Score or NTS, we reveal a minus NTS for the Australian media industry,” she said.

“The banking industry has an NTS of minus 18 percent, compared to the media industry with an NTS of minus seven per cent. So, while media industry is less toxic than banks, it is still in negative territory,” she said.

Media category Net Trust Scores or NTS (distrust score subtracted from trust score):

Social Media: minus 42 per cent
Television: minus 16 per cent
Newspapers: minus 13 per cent
Internet: minus seven per cent
Magazines: minus four per cent
Radio: minus two per cent

After the ABC, SBS is Australia’s second most trusted media brand. 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 plus-five per cent – well ahead of the other three commercial networks, all with an NTS of between minus-six 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. While their distrust of Facebook and social media is driven by fake news, manipulated truth, false statistics and fake audience measurement,” Levine said.

According to survey respondents, their top five drivers of distrust in commercial television are:

False new / fake news
Bias
News is sensationalised/focus on controversial stories
Pushing commercial or political agenda
Too much advertising

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