Lost your password?

By Will Price and Sammy Bonasso

American citizens’ trust in the media is rapidly declining and parallels the candidates’ viewpoints in the divisive 2016 presidential election. Many Americans rely on the media to keep themselves politically aware, especially regarding relevant events such as elections for political office. In terms of party, there is an unprecedented gap between the percentage of Republicans who trust the media and the percentage of Democrats who trust the media. This severe dissonance between the two parties was likely generated by general perception of news outlets and the statements from this election’s nominees.

In General, How Much Trust and Confidence Do You Have in the Mass Media?

While a bias can only be suggested, a general decline of trust in the American mainstream media is definite. According to Gallup, citizens’ trust in the media has dropped a staggering 21 percent in 19 years, going from 53 percent to 32 percent. In 2016 alone, it dropped eight percent.

In General, How Much Trust and Confidence Do You Have in the Mass Media?

       Photo From Trump Rally

Trump emphasizes that the odds are unfairly stacked against him and often refers to his adversary, Hillary Clinton, as "crooked." At a rally on October 14, Trump said “I gave a speech earlier today on the lies, corruption and false accusations...of the Clinton campaign, and the mainstream media, which they control and use quite viciously. They want to distract us from WikiLeaks...they want to keep us from talking about the issues." Source: usatoday.com.

Trump emphasizes that the odds are unfairly stacked against him and often refers to his adversary, Hillary Clinton, as “crooked.” Source: usatoday.com.

Democrats’ trust in the media, although still decreasing, remains consistently higher than Republicans’ faith in the media. In a recent 2016 poll, trustworthiness of the media in the eyes of Republicans was at a disheartening 18 percent. This is likely due to statements from Trump, the Republican Party nominee, surrounding bias within the mainstream networks.

According to a video from usatoday.com, on an October 14 rally Trump said “I gave a speech earlier today on the lies, corruption and false accusations…of the Clinton campaign and the mainstream media, which they control and use quite viciously. They want to distract us from WikiLeaks…they want to keep us from talking about the issues.” Source: usatoday.com.

Trump’s claims may hold some credibility. From October 7 to October 13, the morning news on ABC, CBS, and NBC spent 4 hours and 13 minutes discussing sexual assault accusations against Trump while only spending 36 minutes on Clinton scandals exposed in WikiLeaks information dumps. This data was captured by the Media Research Center, an organization devoted to exposing a “left-wing bias in the news media” (mrc.org). Neither Trump’s nor Clinton’s scandals have been entirely verified.

Trump Supporting Student’s Trust in Media

 Clinton Supporting Students’ Trust in Media

Trust in media among students along with the candidate they support roughly parallels that of national polls. Around 35 percent of Trump supporting students trust the media, leaving 65 percent who don’t. Inversely, 67 percent of high school Clinton supporters place trust in media outlets with 33 percent who don’t. 14 percent of adult Republicans trust the media, people who likely support the Republican nominee, Donald Trump. Again at a higher percentage, 51 percent of Democrats, who most likely support Democratic candidate Hillary Clinton, have confidence in the media. The latter two pieces of information are from a 2016 Gallup poll.

Another way to interpret this topic is in terms of the mediums used to access the information. How consumers receive facts may impact their interpretation of data.

Generally speaking, do you prefer to rely on local news sources or national news sources for your information about the Presidential election? (Survey of students)

Did you watch, read, or hear news from the following types of news reporting sources in the last week, or not? (Survey of random U.S. citizens)Source: amerianpressinstitute.org

Source: amerianpressinstitute.org

In adults, local TV news channels are utilized far more often, while students mainly show either no preference or more reliance on national TV stations. This could mean that students’ lack of preference and primary use of national news could dull them to possible subjectivity. Or these results could also signify higher bias in local TV news stations.

Another possibility is that adults show devotion and loyalty more so to their political party rather than the candidate they support. If there is a liberal/Democratic party bias in news networks as groups like the Media Research Center claims there is, this may instill disdain among conservatives/Republicans in the media. According to votesmart.org, Students cannot even register for a political party until the age of 18 in Ohio. Thus, they would more likely support a candidate rather than a party and may be apathetic regarding media bias towards a party.

Debate Photo

Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump debate on September 26th, 2016 at Hofstra University. Trump would go on to win the election despite severe doubt from several media outlets and pollsters. The consistent underestimation of Trump's campaign may have worsened public opinions of the media. Picture: wbur.org

Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump debate on September 26th, 2016 at Hofstra University. Trump would go on to win the election despite overwhelming doubt from several media outlets and pollsters. The consistent underestimation of Trump’s campaign may have worsened public opinions of the media. Picture: wbur.org

Airtime Spent on Trump Controversies vs. Clinton Controversies

Picture: newsbusters.org

Picture: newsbusters.org

There may be some credibility to Trump’s accusations, as Chris Cuomo of CNN, a prominent news outlet, is quoted on air as saying that “we [CNN] could not help her [Hillary] any more than we have…she’s just got a free ride so far with the media” (bizpacreview.com). However, this was in 2014, before Trump had even announced his campaign. This means that CNN, or at least one anchor referring collectively to the company, has supported Clinton for president even before additionally announced campaigns in 2015. As another argument, the extended coverage of Trump’s scandals over Clinton’s could only signify that Trump is just involved in more controversy.

Either way, trust in the American mainstream media has exponentially plummeted in the past decades, and it is likely that the 2016 presidential election exacerbated this issue. However, the decreasing confidence in these networks has been chronic and may correlate to a larger problem regarding political affiliation.

FABTIQUE
avatar
Arlingtonian Editorial Board

Related Posts

Leave a Reply