Introduction

Trust in the media is in freefall. In the United States — a bellwether for global media trends — only 28% of adults said they have a ‘great deal’ or ‘fair amount’ of trust in mass media to report news fully, accurately, and fairly, according to Gallup’s 2025 survey, matching the record low set in 2024. Globally, the Reuters Institute’s 2025 Digital News Report confirms that the crisis extends well beyond American shores. For professionals whose decisions depend on reliable information, the question is no longer whether media is losing trust — but why, and what, if anything, fills the vacuum.

The Data

The numbers paint a stark picture. Trust in national news in the US has dropped 20 percentage points since 2016. The partisan gap is especially pronounced: 51% of Democrats report trusting the media, versus just 8% of Republicans — a schism that reflects the profound political polarisation of the American information environment. Television journalism has suffered the most dramatic long-run collapse: 36% of Americans rated TV reporters as having ‘very high or high’ ethical standards in 1981; by 2024 that figure stood at just 13%.

Local news retains higher credibility (70%), but even that has declined from 82% in 2016. Internationally, the Reuters Institute reports that trust in news has fallen in a majority of countries tracked, with the sharpest declines among younger audiences who have migrated to social platforms as their primary information source.

Journalism or Entertainment?

The structural driver of distrust is the systematic blurring of journalism and entertainment. The commercial imperative to attract eyeballs — amplified by social media algorithms that reward outrage, novelty, and emotional arousal over accuracy and nuance — has pushed many news organisations toward opinion, advocacy, and sensationalism. Audiences sense this shift even when they cannot precisely articulate it. Repeated exposure to content that confirms existing beliefs while inflaming emotions produces a justified scepticism of media motivations.

The Reuters Institute’s 2026 Trends Report identifies a deeper structural change: creators and influencers are driving a shift toward personality-led news that feels more authentic to younger audiences than institutional journalism. Traditional outlets risk becoming ‘less relevant, less interesting, and less authentic’ — a commercial death spiral that accelerates the very disintermediation they fear. The subscription model, adopted by prestige outlets including The New York Times, The Atlantic, and — in Asia — Nikkei Asia, represents one plausible counter-strategy: converting reach into revenue by deepening relationships with committed readers willing to pay for reliable journalism.

The Asia Dimension

In Singapore, media credibility operates within a distinct regulatory framework, where the Broadcasting Act and the newly enacted Online Safety (Relief and Accountability) Act impose clear obligations on both platforms and publishers. Trust in Singapore’s tightly regulated media ecosystem tends to run higher than Western averages — but the global trust crisis is not without local relevance. Digital disruption means Singaporean professionals increasingly encounter foreign news sources, algorithmically curated social feeds, and unverified Telegram channels alongside traditional outlets such as The Straits Times and CNA. Regional publications — Nikkei Asia, South China Morning Post, The Edge — face the same challenge of distinguishing authoritative journalism from commentary in an algorithm-dominated environment.

Summary

The erosion of media trust is not merely a cultural phenomenon — it has concrete consequences for how professionals assess geopolitical risk, evaluate policy change, and form investment theses. Reversing the trend requires newsrooms to recommit to transparency about sourcing, structural separation of news from opinion, and investment in slow, expensive investigative journalism. Absent that recommitment, the information environment will continue to fragment — and with it, the shared evidentiary base on which sound decision-making depends.