Study: Radio is Australia’s most trusted medium

Former Assistant Editor

A new study by Roy Morgan has found that Australians trust radio the most and social media the least when it comes to consuming media.

The MEDIA Net Trust Survey measured the levels of trust and distrust when it came to industries including social media, television, newspapers, internet, magazines and radio.

The report shows an NTS score for each industry, resulting from subtracting the level of distrust from trust, with radio holding a score of just minus 2%.

At the other end of the spectrum, social media had a whopping minus 42% score.

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

  1. Social Media – minus 42%
  2. Television – minus 16%
  3. Newspapers – minus 13%
  4. Internet – minus 7%
  5. Magazines – minus 4%
  6. Radio – minus 2%

Roy Morgan CEO Michele Levine says that while trust is firmly on the agenda for, “distrust is the critical measure everyone’s ignoring.

“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.”

The study, which surveyed over 5,000 Australians over several rounds, also asked Australians which media organisations they trust the least and most.

It found the ABC is the most trusted organisation in the country, with SBS coming second and Fairfax third.

“Australians told us that their trust of the ABC is driven by its lack of bias and impartiality, quality journalism and ethics,” added Levine.

“While their distrust of Facebook and Social Media is driven by fake news, manipulated truth, false statistics and fake audience measurement.”

Levine says that distrust levels matter because it triggers audience churn, kills audience engagement, impacts advertiser spend can be a tipping point for reputational damage.

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Mick
28 Jun 2018 - 1:21 am

Trust me I work in radio !

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