SALT LAKE CITY — Today's media landscape is extremely fragmented with seemingly endless sources of information coming digitally and from all angles.

With smartphones and social media, more Americans are getting their news digitally than ever before. A 2024 survey from Pew Research Center shows most Americans (86%) say they "sometimes" or "often" get news from digital devices.

While news websites and news apps are still the preferred source for digital news, the share of Americans who prefer social media is steadily climbing and has increased by 6% since 2023, according to Pew.

So where does that leave traditional news media outlets? And who do people trust most to deliver insightful, fair and accurate information?

"It's a troubling time. There's a lot of concern about people's trust and the perceived credibility of media, particularly news media," said Joel Campbell, associate professor at BYU's School of Communications.

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Trust in the news in the U.S. sits at 32%, according to the 2024 Reuters Institute Digital News Report, which looks at news trends across the globe. It hit that low mark in 2023 and remained stable into 2024, Reuters says, though the U.S. percentage remains at the bottom half of surveyed countries.

Within that, there are some notable discrepancies when it comes to what types of news people trust, with local TV news and local newspapers remaining the most trusted sources (62% and 61%, respectively). Alternatively, cable news like Fox News and CNN continue to have some of the highest levels of distrust.

Campbell agrees with this, too.

"There still is a bit more trust for local news than there is for some of the national news outlets," he said. "I think it's that perception of trust ... that they're a little bit closer and they've been a trusted brand in the past."

As far as general trust in the news, Campbell said it doesn't help that "political parties and our polarized politics makes the media out to be our enemy."

Indeed, many journalists operate in polarized political environments, and many of the most engaged news consumers — and the most aggressive and expressive voices on social media — are highly partisan.

After assuming office in January 2017, President Donald Trump accused the press of being "the enemy of the American people" and "fake news" — rhetoric he repeatedly touted throughout his previous presidency, the latest election cycle and now into his current term.

It doesn't just exist on one side of the political spectrum, either, with former Mexican President Andrés Manuel López Obrador, a member of one of the country's more progressive parties, routinely attacking the media throughout his term.

While misinformation certainly exists, Campbell rejected the idea that the media, by and large, is not trustworthy or has an agenda of deceit.

"That saddens me, and I'll just push back on the idea of mainstream media. That indicates that there's a notion that, somehow, we're all in a big mind meld ... that we all think the same. The journalists I know and worked with over the years were very independent-thinking people," Campbell said.

The Reuters report didn't just look at how much Americans trust news, though, instead diving deeper to analyze the most important factors for people when it comes to deciding which news outlets to trust.

It found that generally, most people — across differences in age, gender, education, income and political orientation — think in broadly similar terms about what these most important factors are, even if they sometimes come to different conclusions about the news media, in general, and specific outlets.

Some of the most pivotal factors for news consumers are transparency (72%), high standards (69%), freedom from bias (61%), and fair representation of people similar to them (65%).

"Transparency is the new objectivity; and what that means, I think, is that journalists no longer can pull the wool over people's eyes. You need to say, 'How do we know what we know?'" Campbell said. "Journalists probably need to be more willing to share their background (research) documents, and I also think leaning on more statistical — things based in evidence — I think is a healthy thing that's happening in a lot of places."

Another factor complicating trust in media, Campbell said, is confirmation bias.

"If you read an article and it confirms what you believe or is against what you believe, you tend to just focus on those things and then judge it by, you know, confirmation bias going on. And (you) may not give full credit to the journalist's effort to balance the story," he said.

Despite the measures taken by outlets across the country — and the world — to increase trust and transparency, he acknowledged there's no "silver bullet" for bridging the apparent divide between the media and people's trust in the media.

"What else can be done? I think media literacy, there's a lot of programs going on about how to be more media literate — but also to question and look at their sources," Campbell said. "And for the news media, to be more transparent about their methodology, and maybe a bit more humble about when they get it wrong, instead of being arrogant about it."

With all of that in mind, KSL.com is launching the KSL News Survey.

The survey aims to improve KSL.com's news offerings by providing us with feedback on your preferred news formats, sources, content and news values.

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