Trust, Media and Democracy – Knight Foundation
Learning and Impact

Trust, Media and Democracy

VP/Learning and Impact
Senior Director/Media and Democracy

Knight Foundation launched the Trust, Media and Democracy initiative in 2017 to inform solutions to declining trust in journalism and other democratic institutions. Knight has partnered with Gallup to produce a research series that seeks to better understand this trend by exploring Americans’ evolving relationship with the news media and the ways in which Americans seek information and engage in the democratic process.

The research series is anchored by the biennial American Views survey, a large-scale poll of Americans’ attitudes and opinions about the news media and its role in our democracy. Findings from this survey have underscored the linkage between increasing perceptions of partisan bias in news content and the decline in trust Americans’ have for the media as an institution. The 2018 report found that while Americans valued the role of the news media as an important institution in a free society, they did not believe it was fulfilling its democratic roles well.  In 2020, Gallup and Knight documented continued pessimism and further partisan entrenchment about how the news media delivers on its democratic mandate for factual, trustworthy information. Nevertheless, Americans have not lost sight of the value of news: strong majorities uphold the ideal that the news media is fundamental to a healthy democracy.

Parts 1 and 2 of our most recent American Views report explore the public’s concerns about the disconnect between journalism’s business model and its role as a democratic institution. The findings underscore the urgency of restoring trust as a financial imperative for the news industry.

Gallup and Knight have also undertaken a range of experimental research as part of this series that can inform journalistic practice. In 2019, the series found evidence that small interventions — such as better informing audiences of the financial crisis facing local news and of the positive correlation between local news consumption and civic participation — can increase willingness to pay for local news. The partnership also created NewsLens, an experimental news aggregator platform to observe and measure news consumption behaviors. This platform was most recently used to study how Americans interacted with news content around the 2020 election and found that, while they do not seem to consume news in so-called echo chambers, Americans tend to assess news content from politically consonant outlets higher than from others. The study also found that personal relevance is a key factor in how readers rate the quality of news they consume online.

Taken together, this ongoing research series comprises one of the most comprehensive studies of how Americans are informed today and their complex attitudes toward an important pillar of our democracy.

Journalism

AMERICAN VIEWS 2022: Part 2, TRUST MEDIA AND DEMOCRACY

report
February 15, 2023
AMERICAN VIEWS 2022: Part 2, TRUST MEDIA AND DEMOCRACY
Journalism

American Views 2022: Part 1

report
October 19, 2022
American Views 2022: Part 1

Trust in News Research

Journalism

American Views 2022: Part 1

report
October 19, 2022
American Views 2022: Part 1

NewsLens 2020: How Americans Process the News

report
May 26, 2021
NewsLens 2020: How Americans Process the News
Journalism

American Views 2020: Trust, Media and Democracy

report
August 4, 2020
American Views 2020: Trust, Media and Democracy
Journalism

Putting a Price Tag on Local News

report
November 15, 2019
Putting a Price Tag on Local News
Journalism

State of Public Trust in Local News

report
October 29, 2019
State of Public Trust in Local News
Journalism

Indicators of news media trust

report
September 11, 2018
Indicators of news media trust
Journalism

Major internet companies as news editors

report
August 15, 2018
Major internet companies as news editors
Journalism

People like you: How personal and community ratings influence trust in media

report
July 25, 2018
People like you: How personal and community ratings influence trust in media
Journalism

An online experimental platform to assess trust in the media

report
July 18, 2018
An online experimental platform to assess trust in the media
Journalism

Assessing the effect of news source ratings on news content

report
June 27, 2018
Assessing the effect of news source ratings on news content
Journalism

Americans’ views of misinformation in the news and how to counteract it

report
June 20, 2018
Americans’ views of misinformation in the news and how to counteract it
Journalism

Perceived accuracy and bias in the news media

report
June 20, 2018
Perceived accuracy and bias in the news media