Only 32% of Australians trust the media

15Feb11

Trust in government and business has reached heights similar to that before the GFC, however Australian trust of the media trails most industries and is amongst the lowest in the world according to a major report by Edelman, the world’s largest independent public relations firm.

According to the survey, only 32% of the Australian  public trusts the media, compared to a global average of 49%. Only the USA and U.K had lower media trust than Australia.

Edelman say that “Transparency, honesty and trust are key reputation attributes for Australians”. Unfortunately this doesn’t seem to be as evident in the media sector which ranked behind banks, insurance and financial services for trust.

The survey suggests that “Search is King: Online search engines the ‘go-to’ source of information about a company”:

Australians are using search engines first when sourcing information about an organisation (35%), followed by online news outlets (22%).

Company websites are now also seen as an important information source, ranking third (16%).

Although Australians are going online first for information, they view traditional media sources such as business magazines (27%), newspapers (23%) and radio (23%), along with online search (27%), as the most trusted (“Trust a great deal”) sources of information about a company.

More survey details here: