WASHINGTON, D.C. — Americans’ confidence in the mass media has edged down to a new low, with just 28% expressing a “great deal” or “fair amount” of trust in newspapers, television and radio to report the news fully, accurately and fairly. This is down from 31% last year and 40% five years ago.

Meanwhile, seven in 10 U.S. adults now say they have “not very much” confidence (36%) or “none at all” (34%).

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When Gallup began measuring trust in the news media in the 1970s, between 68% and 72% of Americans expressed confidence in reporting. However, by the next reading in 1997, public confidence had fallen to 53%. Media trust remained just above 50% until it dropped to 44% in 2004, and it has not risen to the majority level since. The highest reading in the past decade was 45% in 2018, which came just two years after confidence had collapsed amid the divisive 2016 presidential campaign.

The latest 28% confidence reading, from a Sept. 2-16 poll, marks the first time the measure has fallen below 30%.

Media Trust at Record Lows Among All Party Groups

Although Democrats and Republicans continue to express different levels of trust in the news media, the percentages with high confidence in reporting are at low points among all party groups.

• Republicans’ confidence, which hasn’t risen above 21% since 2015, has dropped to single digits (8%) for the first time in the trend.
• Independents’ trust has not reached the majority level since 2003, and the latest 27% reading matches last year’s historical low.
• For Democrats, the narrowest of majorities (51%) now express trust in the media, which is a repeat of the low previously seen in 2016.

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Media Confidence Remains Higher Among Older Adults

There is a clear generational divide in trust in the media that has grown particularly stark over the past decade, according to an analysis of three-year aggregated data to increase sample sizes. In the most recent three-year period, spanning 2023 to 2025, 43% of adults aged 65 and older trust the media, compared with no more than 28% in any younger age group.

In the early 2000s, Americans in all four age groups expressed relatively similar levels of confidence in the media, at just above 50%. Since then, confidence among all four groups has gradually declined — but less so among Americans aged 65 and older.

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Democrats of all ages express more trust than Republicans in the mass media. In combined 2023-2025 data, 38% of Democrats aged 18 to 29 and 42% of those aged 30 to 49 express trust in the media, compared with 59% of Democrats aged 50 to 64 and 69% of those aged 65 and older.

Across age groups, independents report less trust in the mass media than Democrats do, but substantially higher than Republicans. Among independents, those aged 65 and older are the most likely to say they have confidence in the media. Republicans’ media trust varies less by age, ranging from just 6% to 17%.

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Bottom Line

Confidence in the mass media is historically low, with fewer than three in 10 Americans now placing trust in newspapers, television and radio to report the news fully, fairly and accurately. The decline is evident across all major partisan groups, though Republicans’ confidence is now in the single digits, while independents remain largely skeptical. Democrats, who traditionally have been most positive toward the media, now register only a slim majority.

Generational divides further underscore the erosion, with older adults holding significantly more faith than younger Americans in the media. Given younger Democrats’ relatively low confidence in the media, overall trust could decrease further in the future, unless Republican trust rebounds.

With confidence fractured along partisan and generational lines, the challenge for news organizations is not only to deliver fair and accurate reporting but also to regain credibility across an increasingly polarized and skeptical public.

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Learn more about how the Gallup Poll Social Series works. View complete question responses and trends (PDF download).

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