Study Finds Google Is More Trusted Than Traditional Media

According to a study by market research company Zogby International, people trust Google, Apple, and Microsoft more than the traditional media. Social networking sites such as Facebook and Twitter scored lowest on the trust scale, but still soundly beat the media. From the article: "The traditional media received little sympathy from the public, with only eight percent of all adults and six percent of young adults saying they trusted them."

A very wise man once said

[NaCh0]

Beware the Government/Media complex.

Say bad things about your master and you're no longer invited to the evening parties.

There are different studies

[Anonymous Coward]

There are different studies: In Finland, young people trust newspapers far more than anything in the internet. 78 % say they trust newspapers, while 18 % say they trust internet.

This is a study ordered by Finnish Newspapers Association and made by major independent research company.

Bad google translation here [google.com].

Re:The elephant in the summery

[cappp]

There are, as usual, some important caveats. This is the finding of a Zogby poll, a polling firm that Nate Silver fondly refers to as “the worst pollster in the world” [fivethirtyeight.com] and one whose methodology has been consistently critiqued. [fivethirtyeight.com] Further, it’s an online poll [zogby.com] that obviously elicits a very specific kind of response.

Given the aforementioned, the specific numbers hardly paint the picture the summary provides.

While Microsoft, Apple and Google were each trusted by 49%, the percentage expressing little or no trust was higher for Microsoft and Google (both 46%) than it was for Apple (35%). The percentage of not sure responses was higher for Apple (15%) than for for both Google and Microsoft, both 5%. Adults under 30 had the least trust in the two computer giants, especially Microsoft. Among First GlobalsTM under 30, 34% had trust in Microsoft and 41% in Apple. That age group's trust in Facebook (20%) and Twitter (15%) was also greater than that of older age groups.

I recommend you go over and look at the original report [zogby.com] yourselves, it makes some really odd choices – for instance lumping together “trust a little” and “not at all.” Similarly "The Media" represents some monolithic entity - which is also primed against given the pervasive creation and politicization of the catagory of "mainstream media" - whilst Twitter, Google, and Apple somehow deserve their own catagories.

Re:The elephant in the summery

[HungryHobo]

Not quite but they genuinely do balance based on complaints.
In an interview I remember one BBC producer saying they try to end up with piles of complaint letters of similar size for each side of contentious issues.
So old nutters who send a lot of complaint letters do get overrepresented but the BBC isn't all that bad overall.
It's quite common to get lots of letters from both side complaining that a particular show was biased towards the other side.

Re:The elephant in the summery

[TheRaven64]

This is, to a degree, what they aim for, and does not contradict the grandparent. They regard a report as unbiased when both sides of the issue complain in equal numbers that it is biased towards the other side.

Re:The elephant in the summery

[sorak]

That is true, if the facts are being reported from a different perspective, perhaps with a slightly different emphasis. The problem with Fox News (I can't speak for RM's other companies), is that they have too many activists who don't care what the facts are. I used to watch Fox News, because I wanted to have my opinion challenged, but there were just a few too many times when I would have to go to my computer to fact-check the talking point that had gone unchallenged the past week, or to simply hear the other side of the debate, that I eventually realized that it wasn't worth my time.

I wouldn't be surprised...

[stewbacca]

...if those who distrust traditional media the most trust Fox News the most. Sort of like how every Fox News broadcast belittles the mainstream media when they themselves are the #1 mainstream media outlets in America.

Flame away.