Public trust crumbles amid COVID, fake news - survey

By Mark John

 

FILE PHOTO: A sign showing major news organizations along with the words "fake news" is held up as U.S. President Donald Trump speaks at a Make America Great Again Rally in Washington, Michigan April 28, 2018. REUTERS/Joshua Roberts/File Photo

 

LONDON (Reuters) - Trust in governments, business chiefs and media is crumbling amid a perceived mis-handling by leaders of the coronavirus pandemic and a widespread feeling among ordinary citizens that they are being misled, a global survey has found.

 

The Edelman Trust Barometer, which for two decades has polled thousands of people on their trust in core institutions, found 57% of people believe government leaders, business chiefs and journalists are spreading falsehoods or exaggerations.

 

Breaking out responses according to a person's media habits and voting patterns, the survey found a greater hesitancy on vaccines among those who rely mostly on social media, and underlined the polarization of politics in the United States.

 

"The violent storming of the U.S. Capitol last week and the fact that only one-third of people are willing to get a COVID vaccine crystalize the dangers of misinformation," said Richard Edelman, whose Edelman communications group produces the survey.

 

The figure cited by Edelman referred to the fact that an average of only 33% of respondents in 27 countries covered by the survey said they would take the vaccine as soon as possible. A further 31% said they would take it within a year.

 

The survey was conducted between Oct. 19 and Nov. 18 among more than 33,000 respondents, with a supplement carried out in December after the U.S. presidential election.

 

GOVERNMENTS LESS TRUSTED

 

Governments, which in a previous survey conducted early in the pandemic saw a bounce in their trust ratings from publics who wanted them to prioritise saving lives over the economy, saw sharp losses in trust levels as the year progressed.

 

As a whole, confidence in the institution of government fell from an all-time high of 65% last May to 53% by year-end. Losses were particularly acute in South Korea, Britain and China.

 

Trust in media, which had already been ebbing in the survey since 2019, fell further. Confidence in traditional media outlets dropped 8 points to 53% although they still attracted more trust than social media, which fell five points to 35%.

 

Strong national majorities across the board considered media was doing a poor job at being objective and non-partisan, with Japan in Asia, Italy in Europe and Argentina in South America all registering particularly high scores of mistrust.

 

In the United States, levels of trust diverged according to political affiliation: while 63% of Joe Biden voters trusted journalists, that figure fell to 21% for voters of Donald Trump, who has long denigrated mainstream media as "fake news".

 

Despite the fact that business leaders were suspected by a majority of engaging in falsehoods and exaggerations, they nonetheless came out of the survey with better overall trust levels than either governments or the media.

 

Nine in 10 respondents said they wanted CEOs to speak out on the pandemic's impact, labour and societal issues and more than two-thirds expect them to step in when the government does not fix problems.

 

-- © Copyright Reuters 2021-01-13

 

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9 minutes ago, snoop1130 said:

Public trust crumbles amid COVID, fake news - survey

By Mark John

 

FILE PHOTO: A sign showing major news organizations along with the words "fake news" is held up as U.S. President Donald Trump speaks at a Make America Great Again Rally in Washington, Michigan April 28, 2018. REUTERS/Joshua Roberts/File Photo

 

LONDON (Reuters) - Trust in governments, business chiefs and media is crumbling amid a perceived mis-handling by leaders of the coronavirus pandemic and a widespread feeling among ordinary citizens that they are being misled, a global survey has found.

 

The Edelman Trust Barometer, which for two decades has polled thousands of people on their trust in core institutions, found 57% of people believe government leaders, business chiefs and journalists are spreading falsehoods or exaggerations.

 

Breaking out responses according to a person's media habits and voting patterns, the survey found a greater hesitancy on vaccines among those who rely mostly on social media, and underlined the polarization of politics in the United States.

 

"The violent storming of the U.S. Capitol last week and the fact that only one-third of people are willing to get a COVID vaccine crystalize the dangers of misinformation," said Richard Edelman, whose Edelman communications group produces the survey.

 

The figure cited by Edelman referred to the fact that an average of only 33% of respondents in 27 countries covered by the survey said they would take the vaccine as soon as possible. A further 31% said they would take it within a year.

 

The survey was conducted between Oct. 19 and Nov. 18 among more than 33,000 respondents, with a supplement carried out in December after the U.S. presidential election.

 

GOVERNMENTS LESS TRUSTED

 

Governments, which in a previous survey conducted early in the pandemic saw a bounce in their trust ratings from publics who wanted them to prioritise saving lives over the economy, saw sharp losses in trust levels as the year progressed.

 

As a whole, confidence in the institution of government fell from an all-time high of 65% last May to 53% by year-end. Losses were particularly acute in South Korea, Britain and China.

 

Trust in media, which had already been ebbing in the survey since 2019, fell further. Confidence in traditional media outlets dropped 8 points to 53% although they still attracted more trust than social media, which fell five points to 35%.

 

Strong national majorities across the board considered media was doing a poor job at being objective and non-partisan, with Japan in Asia, Italy in Europe and Argentina in South America all registering particularly high scores of mistrust.

 

In the United States, levels of trust diverged according to political affiliation: while 63% of Joe Biden voters trusted journalists, that figure fell to 21% for voters of Donald Trump, who has long denigrated mainstream media as "fake news".

 

Despite the fact that business leaders were suspected by a majority of engaging in falsehoods and exaggerations, they nonetheless came out of the survey with better overall trust levels than either governments or the media.

 

Nine in 10 respondents said they wanted CEOs to speak out on the pandemic's impact, labour and societal issues and more than two-thirds expect them to step in when the government does not fix problems.

 

-- © Copyright Reuters 2021-01-13

 

- Whatever you're going through, the Samaritans are here for you

- Follow Thaivisa on LINE for breaking COVID-19 updates

 

 

Front page of the Bangkok Post is reporting the success rate of Covid 19 vaccine from China only at 50.4%.

That is a shocking statistic. 43% of people believe the powers that be, are telling the truth. What is wrong with people? One thing you can be sure of is that in these days no one is telling the truth anymore. It is all power plays and political posturing. On both sides.

18 minutes ago, canuckamuck said:

That is a shocking statistic. 43% of people believe the powers that be, are telling the truth. What is wrong with people? One thing you can be sure of is that in these days no one is telling the truth anymore. It is all power plays and political posturing. On both sides.

 

well, it says "falsehoods or exaggerations". yes, many government leaders, business chiefs and journalists are OFTEN spreading exaggerations and SOMETIMES falsehoods.

 

because of that established history of lying, some people have difficulties telling truth from lie.

usually these people are what I call the "binary" people, i.e. they think of everything as all white or all black. so if they know the government told a lie, they will consider everything the government says to potentially be a lie.

2 hours ago, canuckamuck said:

That is a shocking statistic. 43% of people believe the powers that be, are telling the truth. What is wrong with people? One thing you can be sure of is that in these days no one is telling the truth anymore. It is all power plays and political posturing. On both sides.

Well I always take your posts with a large pinch of salt.

10 hours ago, Chomper Higgot said:

Well I always take your posts with a large pinch of salt.

It's mutual.

Well that’s great I can get the jab much quicker if the covidiots don’t want the vaccine guess it’s darwin at work

11 hours ago, Chomper Higgot said:

Well I always take your posts with a large pinch of salt.

Smart man!!

Since when did anyone, except the naive, trust politicians or business chiefs, both of whom have an "obvious" agenda to push. The biggest problem, in my view, is the perception by a good proportion of the population of biased reporting by the mainstream media, who many suspect, rightly or wrongly, to be pushing a "hidden" agenda; especially as, nowadays, in the free world, there are plenty of alternative sources of information that people can access, many espousing extremist views. The failure of the mainstream media to maintain at least an aura of objectivity is having serious consequences if you ask me.

Just now, Jeffr2 said:

11 hours ago, Chomper Higgot said:

Well I always take your posts with a large pinch of salt.

Smart man!!

Right before the tequila and lime? Count ME in!

 

Covid evolving faster than human intelligence.

22 minutes ago, nausea said:

Since when did anyone, except the naive, trust politicians or business chiefs, both of whom have an "obvious" agenda to push. The biggest problem, in my view, is the perception by a good proportion of the population of biased reporting by the mainstream media, who many suspect, rightly or wrongly, to be pushing a "hidden" agenda; especially as, nowadays, in the free world, there are plenty of alternative sources of information that people can access, many espousing extremist views. The failure of the mainstream media to maintain at least an aura of objectivity is having serious consequences if you ask me.

You can't paint all with such a broad brush.  Many in politics and business do good with regards to their agenda.  Many.  Yes, many also do NO good.  Such as Trump, who has been responsible for a lot of this mess the past 4 years.  Sowing mistrust, lies and propaganda.

 

You're better off with MSM than you are with the fringe sites on the far left or far right.  Alternative sources are hotbeds for misinformation and lies.  And sadly, many fall for it.  Like not trusting MSM.

2 hours ago, Jeffr2 said:

You can't paint all with such a broad brush.  Many in politics and business do good with regards to their agenda.  Many.  Yes, many also do NO good.  Such as Trump, who has been responsible for a lot of this mess the past 4 years.  Sowing mistrust, lies and propaganda.

 

You're better off with MSM than you are with the fringe sites on the far left or far right.  Alternative sources are hotbeds for misinformation and lies.  And sadly, many fall for it.  Like not trusting MSM.

 

a lie told to achieve "good" goals still remains a lie.

 

11 minutes ago, tgw said:

 

a lie told to achieve "good" goals still remains a lie.

 

Again, not all in politics or business tell lies.  Some are quite good.  Though not all.

Maybe this kind of screw-up might be leading to a loss of trust?

 

Vaccine reserve was already exhausted when Trump administration vowed to release it, dashing hopes of expanded access

When Health and Human Services Secretary Alex Azar announced this week that the federal government would begin releasing coronavirus vaccine doses held in reserve for second shots, no such reserve existed, according to state and federal officials briefed on distribution plans. The Trump administration had already begun shipping out what was available beginning at the end of December, taking second doses directly off the manufacturing line.

 

Now, health officials across the country who had anticipated their extremely limited vaccine supply as much as doubling beginning next week are confronting the reality that their allocations will not immediately increase, dashing hopes of dramatically expanding eligibility for millions of elderly people and those with high-risk medical conditions.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/health/2021/01/15/trump-vaccine-reserve-used-up/