Looking to Unify America? Vast Majority of Americans Distrust News Media on Every Level - Report
While some say that Americans are more polarized than ever, there are certainly still points that the country is relatively united on.
One such topic is a distrust of our news media.
A poll released Wednesday conducted by the American Press Institute and The Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research found that over half of Americans (53 percent) are extremely or very concerned about news organizations reporting inaccurate information during the election.
Another 30 percent of U.S. adults said it is an issue they are somewhat concerned about.
And as to having actual confidence in the information, the number is even worse.
“Most Americans follow news about presidential (77%) and local and state elections (64%) at least somewhat closely, and more report frequently receiving news about elections from nation (50%) or local (39%) than other sources such as friends or family (21%) or individuals on social media,” the poll reported.
And yet, only 14 percent of respondents “express a great deal of confidence in election-related information they receive from national sources and only 11% say the same about local media,” the poll reported.
Fourteen percent? More Americans admit they believe in astrology.
“Misinformation” was a major talking point during both the 2016 and 2020 elections as each side accused the other of reporting false information.
The biggest was in 2016 when then-presidential candidate Donald Trump was reported to be colluding with Russia, a story that was ultimately shown to be baseless, yet spurred an investigation by special counsel Robert Mueller that dogged much of Trump’s presidency.
This coming election cycle will face unique problems that previous ones have not as artificial intelligence technology has expanded since 2020.
Americans have worries over how AI can be negatively harnessed to spread misinformation as 42 percent say of respondents said they were extremely or very concerned.
Other issues, such as whether news organizations will report unverified information or that news will be biased worried 47 percent and 44 percent, respectively.
It’s hard to blame Americans for their distrust of the established media.
Whether it’s news organizations intentionally ignoring or downplaying the story of Hunter Biden’s laptop or liberal news sources constantly covering for President Joe Biden’s blunders, there’s a whole list of reasons to be skeptical of the establishment media.
But while media is as untrustworthy as ever it’s also as abundant as ever.
It is no longer the 1960s when all that most Americans had to choose from were major networks and newspapers.
Conservative media outlets — like The Western Journal — aren’t hard to find.
Before the election cycle is a perfect time to begin vetting different sources and finding which you trust and which ones don’t care about integrity.
While it’s impossible to find a source of news without a bias, as long as you know what that bias is you avoid falling into an echo chamber.
The news is important but it’s just as important that it is true.
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