Media Distrust: Whose Confidence was Lost?

The news media is among the least-trusted institutions in the nation, with only 41% of Americans reporting a great deal or fair amount of trust in it (Swift 2017). This is a major change from the highly trusted media of the mid-20 th Century, although historically this independent, powerful, and widely respected media establishment is an anomaly. To analyze the causes of media distrust over the last forty years, I have demographically broken down results from a question asked by the General Social Survey since 1972. I tested these results, isolated through a regression analysis, against my predictions of potential sources of media distrust. Among all the factors, only political factors – partisanship and political ideology – were substantially significant, while age and hours of TV watched showed weak significance. This did not clearly support any of my predictions but indicates the preeminence of politics as a determinant of media trust.