Americans’ trust in mass media has unraveled in recent years. Part of the reason lies in growing partisanship, and part stems from the rise of alternative voices and platforms.
Meanwhile, the scramble for solid footing in the changing media landscape has emaciated newsrooms, which have shrunk by 40 percent over the past decade, Poynter reported in 2015.
People have lost much of the government oversight that media traditionally provided. And because far fewer trust mainstream media outlets, whatever scrutiny remains becomes easier for politicians to dodge.
Less than a third of Americans trust mass media, according to a Gallup poll released in September. In the 1990s, it was more than half.
The mistrust has been growing for decades and, at least partly, can be traced to the growing perception that mainstream media are biased.
