Lack of trust in US and UK media according to poll

A 10-country opinion poll for Reuters, the BBC and the Media Centre found British and U.S. consumers have low levels of trust in the mainstream media.

Consumers drop news sources that lose trust-survey

In Britain, in the year 2002, only 29% trusted the mainstream media.

In Britain, in 2006, only 47% trust the mainstream media.

In Britain 64% believe the media does not report all sides of the story.

In America 69% believe that the media does not report all sides of the story.

GlobeScan President Doug Miller told Reuters he was surprised by the poll's findings in Britain and the U.S, where levels of public trust in the media appear much lower than in developing markets.

The low levels of trust may, he said, be related to perceptions in the U.S. that the media is too close to the government on issues relating to the Iraq war.

"It may have something to do with the pulling away from traditional media that we're seeing -- this move towards the Internet where people can get other perspectives on major stories that they're not getting from the mainstream media."

GlobeScan found that 28 percent of consumers have stopped using a certain media source in the past year because it lost their trust. Miller said he believed this presented media organisations with an important lesson.

"I think what we can conclude from that is that trust is a key competitive advantage in the market," he said.

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