Greg Treadwell: Trust in news report author on 1% fall, where we sit internationally

Our annual trust in media report shows our trust has fallen by one percent, to 32 percent. 

Forty-five percent of Kiwis say they trust their chosen news. 

The report's co-author Greg Treadwell says we're no longer among leading countries. 

"Our trust in news has been falling much faster than other countries, and now we're way down the bottom with countries like the UK and the US," he said. 

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
We've got our annual Trust and Media survey showing we
might have reached a bit of a bottom trust fill
one percent or only one percent to thirty two percent,
still a low number. Of course, forty five percent of
aercent we trust the news we choose. Are that numbers stable?
The report co author has Greg Treadwills. Well, there's Greg,
very good morning to you.

Speaker 2 (00:17):
Good morning mom.

Speaker 1 (00:18):
How do we compare internationally?

Speaker 2 (00:19):
Where are we at? Well? We started, when we started
doing this research in twenty twenty, we were well above
a sort of group of comparable countries, if you like.
But our trust and news has been falling much faster
than other countries, and now we're way down the bottom
with countries like the UK and the US.

Speaker 1 (00:36):
Does the one percent feel like the bottom?

Speaker 2 (00:39):
Oh? Look, camp, be sure, Camp be sure. But it's
very encouraging that things appear to be stabilizing. That's about
as far as we can go at the moment. But
there's certainly some big lifts and individual brand trust. So
for example, ZEDB has climbed remarkably and in trust levels,
so have other New Zealand brands. Look, there's a lot

(01:02):
of things that contribute to the why and I think
one of them is the distance now between us and
that very fractious time when we're much closer to the pandemic.

Speaker 1 (01:11):
Okay, so you think it naturally recovers. The further away
from COVID we get, the more trust will build by osmosis, I.

Speaker 2 (01:18):
Think that is one of the factors. But I still
think and my colleague Media Mulilanti, who leads this project,
we both think that the news industry itself has responded
positively that it still has some stuff that can do
to rebuild trust. And one of the most important things
that our respondents told us that that would rebuild trust

(01:38):
is transparency. Transparency from news organizations.

Speaker 1 (01:42):
Do you trust your numbers to the extent that by
the time so you get one of the players who
we I think it was sixty percent TV and Z
or something like that, dipped in six out of ten
dip into TV INZ once a week. Do they dip
into TV and Z enough to form a view on
trust or can you dip in for three minutes and
go now, don't trust them? And that's an acceptable number

(02:02):
and that's in the survey.

Speaker 2 (02:03):
Well, look, that's a very good question. What we ask
our respondents is only to rate news organizations that they know.
So if they don't know, for example, the small the
relatively small South Island news organization called Trucks, then we're
not interested in whether they trust them or not. So
all we can do is absolutely the only thing we

(02:25):
can do is ask our respondents to rank those new
organizations they know. It's very hard to judge how well
they know them, but if they feel they know them,
that we're interested.

Speaker 1 (02:36):
Because the one of the most trustworthy organizations is the ODT.
And yet of your thousand people, I would imagine very
few know anything of the ODT, So you're asking a
very small number of people who may know the ODT
to rank it. Therefore, is that digit well?

Speaker 2 (02:53):
I guess all methodologies have their nuances. This our methodology
is mirrors the University of Oxford's Reutter's Institute surveys that
come out every year in a very large report called
the Digital News Report. We take the trust section of
that and mirror that New Zealand, so we have international comparisons.
We don't have any doubts about the methodology. But what

(03:15):
you say, there are smaller numbers of ODT readers than
the Herald or z B listeners. Absolutely, but it is
averaged out of the proportional thing of the Yeah, so
we do know that the ODT is trusted, we think
largely because it's so local. You know, you go to Dunedin,
you go to the rugby game, there's the ODT across

(03:37):
the top of the stadium. I saw it on another
big public facility. That there's a very strong sense of
identification in the target with local things because they help
differentiate your identity as an at targetism.

Speaker 1 (03:48):
That's interesting in and of itself because that's called branding
and marketing, isn't it, which is not really about trust.
It's just like have you brought up advertising?

Speaker 2 (03:55):
Everyone?

Speaker 1 (03:55):
Oh they heard it? So yeah, I saw that. So
your Mike Hosking Billboard. Yeah he looks like a good
guy or not. For more from the Mic Asking Breakfast,
listen live to News Talks at B from six am weekdays,
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