Trust in media has increased, but the general category of media is still one of the least trusted professions, according to the 2012 Edelman Australian Trust survey. Radio came in third on the Edelman Trust Barometer, behind TV and Newspapers.  Social media shows a growing level of trust.

Despite very low trust in the institution of ‘media’ in general (33%), Australians do trust traditional media sources for news and information:

• Television (81 per cent),
• Newspapers (78 per cent),
• Radio (77 per cent) and
• Magazines (75 per cent)

Reflecting the growing credibility of Online media, news aggregators are also highly trusted. Online search engines like Google (78 per cent) and News RSSfeeds (71 per cent) scored high trust levels.

This year’s survey questioned 30,000 people in 25 countries. For the first time in 2012, the Edelman Trust Barometer contrasts the views of the Australian general population with the survey’s traditional Trust respondent group of “informed publics” (high income, college-educate Australians who read or watch business/news media and follow public policy issues). The Australian sample was 1,200 people (1,000 general population plus 200 ‘informed public’).

Other key findings include:

• 60% of Australians do not trust government leaders to tell the truth
• Business, more trusted than government, has the opportunity to move from a license to operate to a license to lead
• Technology the most trusted industry sector in Australia, while trust in energy industry is low
• Peer to peer trust is rising: 31% increase in ‘a person like myself’ and 17% increase in regular employees as credible company spokespeople

See the full briefing at the link below.