Credibility is stock in trade for journalists, and a new study commissioned by a newspaper/online information provider found that broadcasters are among the most trusted news sources, sandwiching newspapers, which came in second. Online sources ranked a notch below the big three. The study, conducted by Opinion Research
Corporation’s CARAVAN(R) Services, asked over 1K Americans to rank several media news sources on a scale of one to ten, with ten representing the phrase “extremely credible” and one representing “not at all credible.”
Television scored a 6.6, followed by newspapers (6.3), radio (6.0), online (5.6), weekly community newspapers (5.2), magazines (4.6) and free shoppers (3.5).
RBR/TVBR observation: Television journalists can take special pride in coming in first in a poll commissioned by a print-oriented company. But we tend to take these kinds of polls with a heaping helping of salt, since you have to wonder about the motivation of the commissioner. ARAnet’s hook is that their trustworthy content will help internet news sites improve on that 5.6 rating. Still, bragging rights are bragging rights, and it’s always better to do well than not.
