London – Declining trust in institutions such as journalism, politics and business is a worldwide trend – and the findings of the Gallup Foundation’s annual US Perception Survey confirm this.
American confidence in print newspapers and television news has dropped to a three-year low.
And it’s not just journalism that has had to work hard to win back public opinion: 11 out of 16 institutions evaluated in the United States have suffered a significant decline in trust among citizens, including the Presidency of the Republic, Congress, the police, and the church.
Confidence has not risen for any US institution
Gallup first measured trust in institutions in 1973 and has done so annually since 1993. This year’s survey was conducted between June 1 and June 20 with a random sample of 1,015 adults aged 18 years and older.
The Supreme Court and the presidency of Joe Biden, two of the institutions that support pillars of democracy in the country, recorded the biggest declines, respectively, with the abolition of the right to abortion and the pandemic hitting the economy hard.
For journalism, the data reflect the sharp decline in trust in different media. In 2021, 21% of Americans said they trust the nation’s print newspapers completely/very much. Now it’s 16%.
The five percentage point drop represents the lowest rate ever recorded by the company in three decades of measurement.
Television news has also lost five percentage points in the last 12 months. And it went from 16% of Americans who totally/over-confidently relied on televised information in 2021 to 11% this year.
None of the institutions Gallup evaluated failed to rise in confidence last year.
Americans trust small businesses the most (68%) and the country’s Congress least (7%).
The military is the only institution most Americans trust (64%), other than small businesses.
For the second time, the police noted that it fell below the level of most citizens (45%).
The other time US law enforcement registered less than half of Americans’ confidence was in 2020, when the survey was conducted weeks after the death of George Floyd by Minneapolis law enforcement.
In addition to print journalism, four other institutions recorded their lowest scores in 30 years: church/religion (31%), the criminal justice system (14%), large corporations (14%), and the police.
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Record drop in confidence across all sectors
Gallup summarizes Americans’ overall trust in institutions by averaging the rankings of 14 institutions it measures each year, excluding small businesses and large tech companies.
This year’s average of 27% of American adults who said they had full or high trust in these 14 institutions is three points below the previous low in 2014.
Confidence average also dropped nine points from 2020, when Americans expressed greater confidence in institutions affected by Covid-19, such as the medical system and public schools.
According to the company, several factors have played a role in keeping confidence low among Americans since 2004, including the Iraq war, the 2008 financial crisis, the resurgence of populism, and inflation rates not seen in four decades.
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It’s not just journalism: trust in political institutions is falling
The biggest declines in trust in US institutions come from the Supreme Court (-11 points) and the presidency (-15 points).
Gallup points out that the decline in trust in the Joe Biden government is due to the country’s current economic situation.
“Confidence in key institutions of the federal government is at a low point at a time when the President and Congress are struggling to deal with significant challenges from high inflation, record gas prices, rising crime and gun violence, continued illegal immigration and political issues. Russia and China “
Although the survey was conducted prior to the abolition of access to abortion in the country, Gallup highlights that the leak of the decision by the Politico news site in May has already affected the Judiciary’s negative assessment.
Confidence varies with party leanings
In terms of party groups – Republicans, Democrats and independents – everyone trusts the 16 US institutions less than they did a year ago.
Democrats and independents suffer a double-digit loss of confidence in the Supreme Court. But confidence in Justice among Republicans remained the same as last year, a reflection of decisions more aligned with conservative thinking, such as abortion.
The gap between credible journalistic views is significant: 20% of Democrats trust TV news versus only 8% of Republicans. While 5% of them trust newspapers, this rate is 35% for Democrats.
Looking at the trend revealed by the survey, there is good news and bad news for TVs. Republicans’ trust in TV rose two percent, while Democrats fell six percent.
As for newspapers, that’s just bad news. The ratio between Democrats and Republicans fell three percentage points.
This may be a reflection of the presence of powerful broadcasters aligned with conservatives, especially Fox News.
Major American newspapers such as the New York Times and The Washington Post have been the target of an intense campaign to discredit the Donald Trump administration and tend to advocate more progressive positions on social and political issues.
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Republicans lost more confidence in banks than any other party group. They also recorded double-digit declines in confidence in the military and police.
Small business and the military are the two institutions best rated by each of the three party groups, while Congress is technically tied for the lowest of the three.
Republicans view the presidency, newspapers, and television news in a similar way to Congress.
Television news and Congress are the lowest rated institutions among independents, while the Supreme Court and large corporations rank as low among Democrats as Congress.
Republicans and Democrats differ most in their confidence in the president (49 points), police (39 points), newspapers (30 points), and public schools (30 points).
Groups differ with less but still significant differences in their reliance on the Supreme Court, labor unions, church/religion, the medical system, television news and big tech companies.
Democrats are more confident than Republicans in most of these institutions. The exceptions are the police, the Supreme Court, and the church/religion.
Full tables with distributions by group and the methodology of the Gallup survey can be viewed here.
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source: Noticias
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