Newspaper Public Attitudes - 2006 Annual Report

Another way of evaluating public attitudes toward newspapers is to look at how much confidence Americans have in them compared with other major institutions in American society. In 2005, newspapers ranked in the bottom half in a list of political, business, civic and health organizations, according to a survey by the Gallup Organization. Fewer than 3 in 10 (28%) said they had a “great deal” or “quite a lot” of confidence in newspapers. Similarly, 24%, had “very little” confidence, while the plurality had “some.” Those percentages are about equal to those for TV news, but are less than half the scores for the highest ranked organizations, the military and the police.

According to the survey research, most institutions had experienced some drop since 2002 and newspapers, again, were among those that experienced the most dramatic decline. In 2002, some 35% of Americans were highly confident of newspapers; that number dropped 7 percentage points in 2005. The dip was not the most severe, however. The presidency and the Supreme Court fell 14 and 9 points, respectively during that time.3