Where Do People (Dis)Trust News Media?

The rise of mis- and disinformation on social media and an increasing perception of bias in the reporting of legacy media outlets has led to trust in media institutions declining over the past years. As a recent Statista Consumer Insights survey of 38 countries shows, whether people trust or distrust the media differs by geographic region.

For example, 41 percent of Serbian respondents said they didn't trust the media when surveyed between April 2023 and March 2024. This can potentially be attributed to an increasing "culture of violence in the media" and a disregard for journalistic ethics in many outlets, according to a news article by Reporters Without Borders. Serbia is followed by 38 percent of respondents in Greece and 27 percent of respondents in Hungary claiming a mistrust in media outlets. On the other end of the spectrum are China (10 percent), Finland (8 percent) and Japan (6 percent). 20 out of 38 countries reported distrust percentages between 10 and 15 percent, including Canada, Germany (both 15 percent), Brazil (14 percent) and Italy (13 percent).

Looking at the rest of the top 10 countries in terms of GDP in 2024, 16 percent of survey participants in the United Kingdom and 18 percent of Indian respondents said they distrust news media, while this number was higher in the United States (20 percent) and France (21 percent).