Reuters: News Organisations Over Four Times More Trustworthy Than Social Media

News organisations are over four times more trustworthy than social media for news and information about the coronavirus outbreak, according to a Reuters Institute for the Study of Journalism report yesterday. 

The report, Navigating the ‘Infodemic’: How People in Six Countries Access and Rate News and Information about Coronavirus, carried out in late March and early April 2020 found that news organisations were use more frequently than national health organisations and health experts as a source of information on the virus.

The news and information about coronavirus produced by news organisations was found to be highly trusted (61 per cent), whereas news and information  on search engines (31 per cent), social media (14 per cent), messaging apps (12 per cent) and video sites (11 per cent) ranked considerably lower.

Furthermore, 38 per cent of respondents said they had seen ‘a lot’ or ‘a great deal’ of false or misleading information about coronavirus in the last week on social media.

News organisations were found to be used by more people as a source of news or information about coronavirus (59 per cent) than the government (56 per cent), national health organisations (48 per cent) and scientists, doctors and health experts (35 per cent).

The report also showed that there was attitudes towards the trustworthiness of news organisations’ information about coronavirus (61 per cent) was considerably higher than politicians (41 per cent).

Attitudes towards media coverage of the coronavirus pandemic highlighted the essential role news media provides.

Sixty eight per cent stated that news media has explained what to do in response to the pandemic and 61 per cent said news media has helped them understand the pandemic.