The media’s public confidence crisis has been decades in the making: is it too late to solve now?

The public’s trust in mass media is now at a record low, with only 31% of Americans having a “great deal” or “fair amount” of confidence in its accuracy and fairness. Polls in Britain paint a similar picture: just 36% of adults mostly trust the news. But should this really come as a surprise?

Plummeting trust in the media is a longstanding issue afflicting the West, sustained by disillusionment and disinformation. It is not a coincidence that this has accompanied increasing polarisation in politics: demagogues like Donald Trump and Nigel Farage advocate for distrust of the mainstream media to their supporters, accusing it of liberal bias and elitism. This is coupled with a growing divide between Democrats and Republicans, Labour members and Conservatives, threatening to undermine compromise and harm public discourse. Reuters suggests that people are unlikely to trust a news company if its values are “antithetical” to their own – since different political identities seem so irreconcilable, it appears an impossibility for the media to retain the trust of the left and right simultaneously.

When the media itself leans into conspiracy and disinformation in the pursuit of profit, it is hard to blame the public for losing faith

Yet this is not just a PR issue: consider the prevalence of client journalism and, more significantly, the hegemonic power of the right-wing press to define narratives in the public eye, regardless of fact or fiction. Client journalism, a section of the press which acts as an unquestioning mouthpiece for the establishment, became most apparent during Liz Truss’ contentious premiership. To the average observer, tabloids news’ cheerleading for her catastrophic mini budget may have seemed divorced from reality, but this aligned closely with the tendency for such papers to frequently parrot the talking points of right-wing politicians.

The Daily Mail ran with the headline “At last! A true Tory budget!”, while the Daily Express extolled the “courage” of Kwasi Kwarteng. Both papers chose to overlook the blatant chaos of Truss’ premiership and her portentous refusal to release an OBR assessment of her economic plans. If the tabloids were to be believed, Truss’ budget was heralding a golden age of growth and investment, only to be stopped in its tracks by the nefarious “anti-growth coalition.”

What’s more, under recent Tory governments, the right-wing press was saturated with contrived controversies intended to deflect attention from real abuses of power. Compared to “Partygate,” Keir Starmer’s “Beergate” scandal received an entirely disproportionate degree of media coverage, and controversy arose around Angela Rayner’s council house sale thanks to a Tory peer’s biography (conveniently timed in the run-up to the General Election). In both cases, no wrongdoing was uncovered, but police investigations cost substantial time and money, with Starmer’s costing £101k.

Dishonest elements of the media have been able to enjoy relative impunity, cosying up to governments and exploiting audiences with legitimate grievances

When the media itself leans into conspiracy and disinformation in the pursuit of profit, it is hard to blame the public for losing faith. The American press is a pertinent example of this. Fox News’ platforming of false claims of election interference confirmed the delusions of many MAGA supporters, and the Tucker Carlson Show brought white nationalist beliefs into the mainstream, such as the “great replacement” theory. Breitbart News has embraced the polarisation of media and adopted a central role in misleading and radicalising other conservative media, spreading countless conspiracy theories including “birtherism” and “Pizzagate.” Breitbart drove 17% of all user interactions with climate misinformation on Facebook, and pocketed $3.7m annually from advertising revenue.

The media’s dishonesty is of course not limited to the US. GB News is an example of a Fox News-style channel which has reached millions of viewers in the UK, despite being reprimanded by Ofcom 12 times over regulation breaches. Rupert Murdoch’s The Sun has participated in its own fair share of misinformation. In the wake of the Hillsborough disaster, its headline “The Truth” was followed by dubious claims that violent disorder from Liverpudlian fans was to blame. Years later, Murdoch would be implicated in the News of the World phone hacking scandal, and it would appear that since 1989 little has changed.

Alternative sources of news, such as Joe Rogan or InfoWars, also serve to erode the media’s reputation for honesty and integrity. Rogan himself was censured for disseminating Covid misinformation on his podcast, while Alex Jones is infamous for his denial of the Sandy Hook shooting. Neither of these men exactly lack influence, with Rogan’s podcast being the most listened-to in the US. Combined with Elon Musk’s takeover of Twitter and the normalisation of far-right voices, efforts by traditional media to fact-check falsehoods seem futile. Trump’s lies can proliferate on social media thousands of times before the press is able to address them.

Without its chronic dependency on sensationalism, the media would also come closer to addressing the everyday concerns and experiences of ordinary people

Even when the media does not resort to outright conspiracy, an abdication of journalistic principles endangers the reputation of the profession. The failure of the fourth estate to hold power to account has had far-reaching consequences: when the media is no longer perceived as independent from the influence of the state, it loses the confidence of the public across the political spectrum. Another example from the 1980s is Margaret Thatcher and Murdoch’s fraternising concerning the latter’s bid for The Times and The Sunday Times. Mass media’s credibility problem is evidently nothing new.

More recently in the liberal media, The Washington Post refused to endorse a candidate in what was arguably the most divisive election of a lifetime, a decision inseparable from The Post’s billionaire owner, Jeff Bezos. The image of a hugely respected newspaper kowtowing to an oligarch’s business interests is not one which inspires confidence in the media. Another billionaire-owned paper, the Los Angeles Times, also abstained.

So, presented with such a deep-rooted crisis, can confidence in the media be restored?

What the past few decades of decline have shown us is that dishonest elements of the media have been able to enjoy relative impunity, cosying up to governments and exploiting audiences with legitimate grievances. Stricter regulation, such as the recommendations of the UK’s Leveson Inquiry, would be a valuable albeit politically difficult decision which could assuage the effects of media malpractice. Without its chronic dependency on sensationalism, the media would also come closer to addressing the everyday concerns and experiences of ordinary people.

Democratic governments need to support independent media now more than ever

Alongside media reform, politicians’ partisan attacks on the press and promotion of post-truth politics must be formally addressed by enforcing stricter codes of conduct. Western democracies lack adequate safeguards, relying instead on people being trusted to do the right thing; it is evidently too much to hope that politicians like Farage will simply tell the truth and engage with the media in good faith. Unfortunately, Trump’s return to the White House makes reform much less likely in the near future.

In terms of public perception, improved education on a national level is key to raising the population’s awareness of how to critically approach media and find reputable sources. This would also lessen the ability of populists to blame a nebulous ‘elite’ for people’s problems. Thomas Jefferson, a fervent proponent of the free press, suggested that an informed electorate is crucial for a functioning democracy – hence Trump’s base consisting largely of voters lacking a college education. As such, education is essential for the critical consumption of news media.

With a second Trump presidency on the horizon and an increasingly authoritarian Europe on our doorstep, an empowered and principled press accompanying a trustworthy mass media is undoubtedly a necessity. Democratic governments need to support independent media now more than ever, but whether the public will follow suit and regain confidence is more uncertain.