Trusted Sources
Modern Consumer Skepticism
In our previous research, we uncovered young consumers’ heavy reliance on information from sources they trust and that the modern landscape has "made it more complex for younger consumers to assess trustworthy news." Our updated data supports and extends this insight. Indeed, a variety of factors already outlined have produced a generation that is highly skeptical of news.
Consumers worry that:
Consumers fear the news they see will be about events that never occurred. The advent of AI-generated images and videos has considerably heightened this fear.
Consumers worry that a minor story may be blown out of proportion or that the language used will push emotional engagement over truth. They fear clickbait-like headlines that do not have their best interest at heart.
The most nuanced concern is that news organizations have ulterior motives and present information in a partial or biased manner. Consumers worry about being manipulated for political or financial gain and about their own views being misrepresented unfairly.
Young consumers are on guard against these concerns when reading news and are exhausted by the skepticism required in this political landscape. Trust in news organizations is desired but difficult to find.
With the rise of social media … I find media now really oversells a story or makes it 10x more dramatic in order to keep attention. … with the rise in polarising political beliefs, it's hard to find media that is completely unbiased.
Many news sites today are also owned by people who have clear partisan interests, which bleeds into reporting.
There's so much information that it's hard to know whether it's true or false; [it] spreads quickly, and public trust in traditional news has dropped because people are divided into opposite sides and headlines are often exaggerated to grab attention.
Defining Trust in News Organizations
In our previous Next Gen News study, we found that while young news consumers do not have a singular defined means of establishing trust, they weigh three important subfactors when considering a source:
Determined through reputation, personal expertise with the news producer and/or open admission of previous errors
Determined through authentic personality, interpersonal connection and connection with the wider community
Determined by transparent, slow, thoughtful communication, disclosure of funding and inclusion of a variety of sources
I think that the biggest challenge with news these days is knowing what's real and what's not. There's obviously a lot of misinformation on places like TikTok, which is kind of one of the primary places I might get news from. Not even if I'm looking for it, like, it will just come up on my "for you" page. But you'll see something and you'll think, I don't really think that that's right. A way to overcome it is to just kind of look into it yourself to see if you can find the right answer, like, through Google, but then even there, you just never know if what you're hearing is true.
These days, there is a lot of misinformation that's spread around, and people in power take advantage of it and bend the narrative. Political influence is happening in the news. So, we can't trust it because it's very polarized. That's there. And, also, not focusing on the main issues and focusing on unnecessary headlines, something that's not important but very entertaining … you know, to get the views.
It is really difficult, especially with the advent of AI, to discern what is true and what is false. I really don't trust many things I see on social media unless it's from somewhere that's a verified page. So like The Washington Post, The New York Times, some site that has history behind it.
I understand that it's like common practice for reporters and all to feel impartial and sound almost robotic when delivering news and headlines, but I think that's very archaic. I think this is the modern day, and I think compassion is one of the few things that human beings have adequately evolved into, and I think we should show said compassion through everything we do.
Trust in Traditional News Producers
We asked participants in the diary study about their primary news sources and to rate their trust in each one. The findings suggest a clear divide between attention and trust: Young consumers may devote substantial attention to creators and alternative news sources, yet they continue to trust traditional news producers the most. Around half of respondents named at least one traditional news producer, and these almost always received the top trust ratings.
These traditional news producers were often introduced to young consumers at an early age and are associated with family, community and authority.
I think I first found [the New York Times] when I was a child. It was one of the sources we were allowed to use for projects. And I just kinda have followed it since.
I think I got to know about AajTak from [the] television channel only. My family watches it every morning so I followed it on Instagram as I'm not watching television much.
I first was given a premium subscription [to Financial Times] through my education as a youngster, and it is a habit that I have kept up since then. The intensity of the habit does vary but over the years it has definitely been something I do more often than not.
Traditional news producers' reputation for credibility exists alongside deep trust among consumers who believe these sources are the final word on factuality. They often think events are factual if and only if a traditional news producer reports on it.
The Washington Post is really good for research purposes [...] usually it has a lot of factual information that I can use if I have seen a piece of information online, on social media or YouTube or anything else that I have found [...] that I need to actually look into.
The Hindu serves as my serious news companion. It's where I go for in-depth understanding rather than the bite-sized updates. … For me, Hindu is like a reliable mentor, less entertaining but deeply enriching.
This reputation comes with the trust to curate. Traditional news producers' front pages, apps, social feeds and other aggregating features are trusted platforms that not only are perceived as reporting factual information but also tell invested consumers when and how to pay attention to the most important information of that moment.
[BBC] is sort of responsible for providing news on everything. So I use it as a daily sort of way to have a look at all the main headlines to just see what's going on in my country and around the world.
However, in the eyes of young consumers, traditional news producers crucially struggle with transparency. While most young consumers trust their information to be factual, many are deeply skeptical about biased reporting that veers into political propaganda. Consumers address this skepticism by cross-referencing multiple trusted traditional news producers via aggregators or search engines and by seeking additional perspectives outside the traditional news producing industry.
I look for sources I consider the safest and always check the same news in different outlets. … This way I can compare and see which information seems more truthful and impartial, and I judge those as more reliable
At worst, perceived unacknowledged bias can undermine trust in a traditional news producer and drive consumers to block or avoid it.
Young consumers also do not have a strong affinity for traditional news producers. They struggle to relate to their formal, depersonalized tone. This is not always a bad thing; that same tone is the foundation for traditional news producers' reputation for credibility.
Trust in Next-Gen Producers
Emerging news producers do not have the established reputations of their traditional counterparts. This makes developing a brand more difficult but also more flexible; they are free to set their own expectations to earn trust.
Trusted emerging news producers in our data demonstrated that flexibility by covering a wide range of topics. Some, such as The Daily Ketchup Podcast from Singapore, were largely entertainment outlets that occasionally added news to their feeds in an informal tone; others, such as Tangle News from the US, are more serious in tone and attempt to cover highlights of civic news. Emerging news producers across the spectrum can earn trust by remaining consistent with the tone, transparency and topics they promise their audiences.
Successful emerging news producers excel in building trust through affinity. By putting personality front and center, they build parasocial relationships with their audience, who come to trust their information by first trusting them as people. Their credibility also stems from personal experience and expertise rather than from institutional affiliation. Transparency is key to this trust and is fostered by the authentic presentation of their personality.
[Dylan Page] makes everything very engaging, and he simplifies certain things so you can understand what's going on. And he doesn't use any jargon or anything. So I think it's very accessible.
This trust makes emerging news producers an important resource for sensemaking, which will be discussed later in this report. Consumers trust these news producers to help them find relevant and vital information, understand it and put it in a social context. However, traditional news producers remain the primary source for many when they seek to substantiate or verify information.