India Ranks At 31, Higher Than The US In Report On Media Trust

In the midst of the Covid-19 pandemic, this year's study focused on trust in news and included India in its main report for the first time.

New Delhi: India ranked at 31 when it came to “trust in news” out of the 46 media markets surveyed by the Reuters Institute. The results of the online survey were published on Wednesday in the tenth edition of the Reuters Institute for the Study of Journalism's (RISJ)’s Digital News Report 2021. The Asian College of Journalism (ACJ) assisted with logistics for surveying the Indian market. In the midst of the Covid-19 pandemic, this year's study focused on trust in news and included India in its main report for the first time. 

According to the study, 73 per cent of respondents in India use smartphones to access news; 82 per cent get news online, including from social media; and 63% get information solely from social media platforms like WhatsApp and YouTube. 

ACJ and RISJ interviewed primarily English-speaking online news users, with a preference for affluent, younger, better-educated, and city-dwelling individuals. This is a small percentage of Indians and cannot be considered representative of the entire population. 

While the researchers discovered that trust in news has increased globally on average, only 38 per centof Indians said they trusted news in general. In India, legacy print brands and government broadcasters received high marks for trust from news consumers. Finland had the highest levels of overall trust in news, at 65 per cent, while the United States had the lowest levels of trust, at 29 per cent.