More Screen Time, Less Trust: Media Credibility Declines as Digital News Grows
While overall news consumption has remained steady, the way people stay informed has changed significantly over the past 25 years.
The average American spends about six hours a day consuming digital content, according to a media consumption study by Talker Research. That amounts to about 36 days a year spent looking at screens, the New York Post reported. For Gen Z, screen time rises to nearly seven hours a day.
A 2016 Pew Research Center study found that six in 10 Americans got their daily news from social media.
Between 2000 and 2010, many Americans turned to the internet for news, though television remained dominant. By 2024, 86% of U.S. adults said they received news through smartphones, computers, or tablets, while 63% still got news from TV, according to Pew.
While digital news consumption has increased, public trust in news media has declined.
A 2024 Gallup poll found that 69% of Americans have little to no confidence in mass media outlets, including newspapers, television, and radio. This marks the lowest level of trust in nearly 50 years, with similar figures reported in 2016.
A study by researchers at Harvard Kennedy School found that exposure to “fake news” is linked to declining trust in mainstream media.
The study suggests that online misinformation affects public confidence in the media. Researchers found that “cynical coverage and tabloid-style focus on scandal can erode citizen trust in news organizations.”
The term “fake news” gained traction during the 2016 presidential election, with Google searches for the phrase increasing 76% in the United States in 2017, according to Google Trends. Globally, searches for the term rose 69% that year.
President Donald Trump called journalists and news organizations “fake news” nearly 2,000 times between 2017 and 2020, according to The Independent.
Though Trump claims to have coined the phrase, Canadian journalist Craig Silverman used “fake news” in 2014 while reporting on a viral hoax about a Texas town being quarantined due to an Ebola outbreak.
A 2016 Pew Research Center study found that 64% of U.S. adults said “fake news” caused confusion over basic facts, while 23% admitted to knowingly or unknowingly sharing a fabricated story.
Concerns over misinformation and “fake news” extend beyond the United States.
A 2024 Statista study found that more than 50% of internet users across 23 countries rely on social media for news. The percentage varies by region, with 77% of respondents in Nigeria using social media for news, compared to 23% in Japan.
Anthony Adornato, chair of the broadcast and journalism department at Syracuse University’s Newhouse School, says newsrooms' reliance on social media for content has contributed to the distribution of misinformation.
A nationwide survey of television newsroom directors conducted by Adornato found that a third of newsrooms reported misinformation originating from social media. Additionally, 40% of newsrooms with social media policies lacked formal verification protocols before broadcasting stories.
"While it’s an everyday practice in most newsrooms to turn to social media to find stories or content, newsroom policies don’t include procedures for verifying content from social media, which is problematic," Anthony Adornato told Phys.org.
Disinformation is not a new phenomenon. Historical examples include Emperor Augustus’ smear campaigns against Mark Antony in ancient Rome and the 1835 “Great Moon Hoax,” in which The New York Sun published fabricated stories about life on the moon.
However, experts say today’s challenge is the speed and scale at which misinformation spreads.
“There’s been disinformation as long as humans have been talking to each other,” said Bradley Honan, CEO of Honan Strategy Group, during a panel hosted by the Columbia School of Professional Studies. “Having so many different channels and platforms allows information now to move as never before. Disinformation is becoming more persuasive because there is so much of it.”
