Trust In News Has Grown Amid Pandemic, But It Is Below Average In India: Report

In India, legacy print brands and government broadcasters Doordarshan and All India Radio are more trusted, while print brands, in general, are more trusted than TV brands, which are seen as far more polarised and sensational.

Trust in news has grown amid the coronavirus pandemic with 44 per cent of the respondents globally saying they trust most news most of the time, but the figure is below average at 38 per cent in India, according to a survey released on Wednesday. Finland has topped the charts with overall trust of 65 per cent, while the US is placed at the bottom with 29 per cent score. India is ranked in the bottom half in the 46-nation survey conducted by the Reuters Institute for the Study of Journalism, University of Oxford. In India, legacy print brands and government broadcasters Doordarshan and All India Radio are more trusted, while print brands, in general, are more trusted than TV brands, which are seen as far more polarised and sensational. In another interesting finding, the study found that personalities -- celebrities and influencers -- attract the most attention amongst social media news users across the four big platforms in India -- Facebook, Twitter, YouTube and Instagram.