A new study has suggested that the most read newspaper in the UK – the Sun – is also the least trusted.
Communications consultancy Open Road teamed up with researchers Populus to research the perceptions of 'opinion formers' and the general public when it comes to trust and the media.
The report singled out popular political blogger Guido Fawkes as even less trusted with 4 per cent trusting the Order-Order blog to report “fairly and accurately”.
Populus interviewed 2064 adults. Here is the breakdown of its "net trust" figure, with the apparently least trusted outlets at the top of the list:
Populus asked the public sample: "To what extent, if at all, do you trust each of the following media outlets to report fairly and accurately?". They were given the options: Trust completely, trust somewhat, neither trust nor distrust, distrust somewhat, distrust completely. The figure quoted is the percentage who said they either trust the outlet somewhat or completely.
- Guido Fawkes: 4%
- Facebook: 7%
- Twitter: 8%
- The Sun: 9%
- Daily Mirror: 13%
- Daily Express: 17%
- Daily Mail: 22%
- i: 25%
- The Times: 37%
- Daily Telegraph: 39%
- The Guardian: 39%
- The Today Programme: 40%
- The Independent: 41%
- Sky News: 46%
- Financial Times: 48%
- ITV News: 61%
- Channel 4 News: 61%
- BBC News: 73%
The research also found that 43 per cent of the public would like to read more about high-profile business figures and 34 per cent felt they were treated too critically.
Twenty-nine per cent of the public said they would like to read more about politicians but 36 per cent said they were treated too critically by the media.
Ninety-two per cent apparently said they wanted less content about celebrities in the press.
Open Road director Rebecca Reilly said: “You would expect that an erosion of trust in particular titles would impact sales, but as you’ll see from our data, the level of trust people have in newspapers is inversely proportional to their circulation figures.
“So what does this tell us? That we don’t expect our media to have morals? That we view it largely as entertainment?
Populus interviewed 2064 adults aged 18+ online between 9-11 May 2012. Interviews were conducted across the UK and the data has been weighted to be representatives of all adults aged 18+.
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