We Are No. 46!
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Well, this tells us everything we need to know….
According to a study by the Reuters Institute for the Study of Journalism at Oxford, the United States ranks last in media trust.
At just 29% of trust, that puts the U.S. behind Poland and worse than the Philippines and Peru.
Finland leads at 65%.
One explanation, though not necessarily the only one, is the extreme political polarization in the U.S. This study, like many others, found extremely high levels of distrust — 75% of those who identify as being on the right thought coverage of their views is unfair.
Local news, both print and broadcast, fared better than national news. However, the findings for struggling local print outlets were not all good.
Interest in local news and willingness to pay for it was not strong. Only 21% in the U.S. said that they pay for news online. Of those who do, 31% said they pay for The New York Times, 24% for The Washington Post and only 23% for the site of a local or regional paper.
The most popular local news topic, by a wide margin (62%), was weather.
