This statistic displays the most reliable sources of data according to professionals in the market research industry in the United States in 2017. During the survey, 32 percent of respondents cited marketing analytics as the most reliable data source.

As of late 2024, ** percent of adults who responded to a global survey stated that they trusted traditional media whereas ** percent said they trusted search engines. The source considered the least trustworthy was social media. Social media was by far the least trusted news source in Europe and North America, and a survey held in the United States revealed that most U.S. adults considered the majority of news seen on social media to be biased. Examining trust in news on a global level The reasons for news consumers’ growing suspicions about the trustworthiness of media are multifaceted, but the onslaught of fake news is a major contributing factor. Adults in several countries worldwide have wrongly believed a news story was real until later realizing it was fake, and one of the top reasons for avoiding news was the inability to rely on its truthfulness. Conspiracy theories, tweets by politicians and poorly written or inaccurate news content often fall under the heading of fake news, and the term is also frequently used to describe news an individual disagrees with. Fake news Fake news is not a recent phenomenon, and has historically been used to defame individuals, garner support for corrupt movements and portray minority groups in a negative way. This tactic of generating publicity by presenting false information as fact was utilized as a means of propaganda during the First and Second World Wars, and by the 21st century became a major problem. Fake news is frequently connected to politics and was famously thrust into the public eye in the run-up to the 2016 U.S. presidential elections, resulting in concerns about the influence of fake news on voters and elections in the United States.

During a 2025 survey, ** percent of respondents from Nigeria stated that they used social media as a source of news. In comparison, just ** percent of Japanese respondents said the same. Large portions of social media users around the world admit that they do not trust social platforms either as media sources or as a way to get news, and yet they continue to access such networks on a daily basis. Social media: trust and consumption Despite the majority of adults surveyed in each country reporting that they used social networks to keep up to date with news and current affairs, a 2018 study showed that social media is the least trusted news source in the world. Less than ** percent of adults in Europe considered social networks to be trustworthy in this respect, yet more than ** percent of adults in Portugal, Poland, Romania, Hungary, Bulgaria, Slovakia and Croatia said that they got their news on social media. What is clear is that we live in an era where social media is such an enormous part of daily life that consumers will still use it in spite of their doubts or reservations. Concerns about fake news and propaganda on social media have not stopped billions of users accessing their favorite networks on a daily basis. Most Millennials in the United States use social media for news every day, and younger consumers in European countries are much more likely to use social networks for national political news than their older peers. Like it or not, reading news on social is fast becoming the norm for younger generations, and this form of news consumption will likely increase further regardless of whether consumers fully trust their chosen network or not.

Adult Gen Z consumers in the United States trust newspapers the most for news, according to a survey held in 2022, with 59 percent saying they had some or a lot of trust in the medium in this respect, whereas just 44 percent felt that social media was a reliable news source.

As the coronavirus has spread throughout the United States and across the globe, consumers have turned to the media to inform about them how the pandemic is progressing and have been seeking news from sources they trust, and ** percent of respondents to a U.S. survey said that they did not trust social media to provide correct information about the outbreak. Social media was by far the least trusted news outlet for coronavirus updates, followed by podcasts and online-only news sites. Conversely, traditional media outlets like newspapers and radio fared better in terms of consumer trust, along with cable and network news.

According to a survey held in February 2024, most journalists prefer to use subject matter experts or researchers as their sources, whereas only a small share used bloggers or influencers.

The share of people in Japan who think that newspapers offer trustworthy information amounted to **** percent in fiscal year 2024. A breakdown by age group shows that the share was highest among people in their seventies.

As of March 2025, Telegram channels were the most-trusted information source among Russians from 18 to 24 years old, followed by social media. The generation aged 55 years and older mostly trusted TV for news in the country and around the world, as per ** percent of respondents in this category.

According to a November 2019 survey regarding U.S. media polarization, it was found that ** percent of consumers who had heard of ABC, trusted it as a news source, whereas the lowest ranking source for political news was MSNBC with a ** percent trust rating.

Data on trust in the news reported by selected social media platforms in the United States revealed that as of April 2023, news found on TikTok was considered to be the least trustworthy overall, with 50 percent of respondents saying they did not trust news they encountered on the platform. Facebook, X, and YouTube fared the best in terms of trustworthy news content, with over 20 percent of respondents saying they felt the reporting they saw on these sites was reliable.

As the United States battles the coronavirus, news consumers across the country have been attempting to keep themselves updated with how the pandemic is progressing, and a survey held in March 2020 revealed that the most trusted news source for details on COVID-19 was the CDC, with ** percent of respondents saying that they trusted the centers to provide accurate information on the topic. Following closely behind was the World Health Organization and then the state government, but just ** percent of consumers said that they trusted social media sites to publish reliable and accurate news about the coronavirus outbreak.

According to a survey held among adults in the United States in February 2022, ABC and CBS were considered to be the most credible news sources in the country, with 61 percent of respondents believing the organizations to be very or somewhat credible. Sources which fared less well were MSNBC, Fox News, National Public Radio, and HuffPost, with less than 50 percent of adults agreeing that they found these to be reliable news outlets. The credibility of all the news sources in the ranking was higher in 2022 than in the previous year, though the figures in 2021 were particularly low.

Trust and bias in news Finding trustworthy, impartial news sources can be difficult for audiences in a world where fake news is in constant circulation and bias in news is a growing concern. More than 50 percent of total respondents to a survey held in early 2020 believed that there was a fair amount or great deal of bias in the news sources they used most often. The same study found that close to 70 percent of respondents were more concerned with bias in news that other people may consume than with their own news source.

A report exploring trust in news found that radio, network news, and newspapers were the most trusted news sources in the United States, whereas social media was not considered reliable in this regard. The lack of trust in news on social media has yet to affect consumption – social networks are the most used source of news among many consumers, particularly younger generations. In fact, some news consumers are moving away from official news platforms altogether and getting their updates from influencers rather than journalists.

A survey held in the United States in 2022 showed that 23 percent of responding adults believed CNN to be very credible, whereas 20 percent said that they did not consider CNN credible at all. Opinions on news media tend to vary according to readers’ political stance, age, educational background, and myriad other factors, and in an age where fake news is a growing problem, consumers are demonstrating a higher degree of awareness of how and where they access their news.

Navigating news media in the United States

In 2021, ABC was considered the most credible major news organization in the United States, followed closely by CBS and NBC. By comparison, just 31 percent of surveyed U.S. adults thought of Huffington Post as a credible news source, and National Public Radio and MSNBC did not fare much better. Credibility is important – there are serious concerns about the accuracy of news stories and a study revealed that most Americans believed that fake news causes a great deal of confusion about basic facts. Accurate reporting as a result of proper research and fact-checking is more in demand than ever, as consumers grow increasingly concerned about the trustworthiness of traditional and modern news sources. What does this mean for news networks As one of the leading cable news networks in the U.S., CNN is a powerful news source and its content is consumed by hundreds of thousands of people per day, meaning that the news channel has a certain degree of responsibility. Failure to deliver clear, accurate, unbiased content to consumers can detrimentally affect ratings, and in an environment as competitive as the news media market, the pressure is on to cater to new and existing viewers alike and deliver reliable, non-partisan content.

News audiences in the United States are more likely to trust local news than national news, a 2024 survey revealed, with ** percent of all respondents saying that they had a lot or some trust in local news, whereas just ** percent said the same about national news. Seven years earlier in 2016, the share of adults who felt that national news were a trustworthy source stood at ** percent, ** percent higher than in the 2024 survey.

In an August 2019 survey of global marketing professionals, ** percent of respondents said they trusted third party research from their vendors or partners. In-house data provided by their research teams was the second most trusted source among surveyed marketers.

In April 2025, the news website with the most monthly visits in the United States was nytimes.com, with a total of ***** million monthly visits in that month. In second place was cnn.com with just over *** million visits, followed by foxnews.com with almost a ****** of a million. Online news consumption in the U.S. Americans get their news in a variety of ways, but social media is an increasingly popular option. A survey on social media news consumption revealed that ** percent of Twitter users regularly used the site for news, and Facebook and Reddit were also popular for news among their users. Interestingly though, social media is the least trusted news sources in the United States. News and trust Trust in news sources has become increasingly important to the American news consumer amidst the spread of fake news, and the public are more vocal about whether or not they have faith in a source to report news correctly. Ongoing discussions about the credibility, accuracy and bias of news networks, anchors, TV show hosts, and news media professionals mean that those looking to keep up to date tend to be more cautious than ever before. In general, news audiences are skeptical. In 2020, just **** percent of respondents to a survey investigating the perceived objectivity of the mass media reported having a great deal of trust in the media to report news fully, accurately, and fairly.

In a November 2021 survey conducted in the United States, 85 percent of respondents stated that the overall average star rating of a business was one of the most important considerations when judging a local business based on reviews. The business having a higher than average star rating than other businesses was also a very important factor, with 76 percent of respondents stating that this was one of the most important aspects.

A 2022 survey found that 24 percent of Americans believe The New York Times (NYT) to be a very credible source of news and information through its print and digital publications. Just 14 percent seriously doubted the credibility of The New York Times, though a further 10 percent had some reservations about the publication, considering it to be somewhat uncredible. The New York Times The New York Times is one of the most widely read newspapers in the United States and has been a fixture of American print news for over 150 years. The publication has won far more Pulitzer Prizes than any other media company in U.S. history, with its first being awarded for its coverage of World War I, and more recently has been recognized for its investigative dives into gender and race dynamics in the United States.

In addition to generally high perceptions of the publication’s trustworthiness among U.S. citizens, most Americans also find it to be accurate in its reporting. When it comes to business, The NYT has been one of the most successful brands in terms of transitioning from print to digital media offerings, with over five million digital-only subscribers as of early 2021.

This statistic is the result of a survey on the consumers' opinion on reliability of people known predominantly through the internet as a news and information source in South Korea as of February 2019. During the measured period, around ** percent of surveyed stated they do not think people they primarily know through the internet are a trustworthy source for news and information, another ** percent stated to not trust these sources at all.

As of November 2019, 65 percent of Republicans and Republican leaners were found to trust Fox News for political and election news. During the survey period, Fox News was the most widely trusted political news source among Republicans. In comparison, only 19 percent of survey respondents distrusted the source about political news. Sean Hannity's radio show was the second-most trusted political news source among Republicans although it is notable that only 30 percent of respondents stated that they trusted the source. Overall, it was found that Republicans were more likely to distrust than to trust a wide range of news sources.