They want news to feel more accessible, more understandable, more relevant
For the eleventh consecutive year, the Reuters Institute has measured the world's relationship with the news, and what it found this year marks a threshold: global trust has fallen to 37 percent, its lowest point since measurement began. In the United States and United Kingdom, the numbers are starker still, reflecting not indifference to truth but a widening conviction that the truth is not what they are being given. The paradox at the heart of this moment is that audiences have not stopped believing in journalism — they have stopped believing in what journalism has become.
- Trust in news has hit a decade-low of 37% globally, with the US at 25% and UK at 30% — numbers that signal not drift but structural fracture.
- Audiences report exhaustion and cynicism specifically around the stories that matter most to them: immigration, inflation, and conflict, where they feel coverage is incomplete, distorted, or agenda-driven.
- More than half now consume news through social media and video platforms, yet trust in those same channels sits at just 22%, revealing a public navigating by convenience rather than confidence.
- Major outlets including CBS, Fox News, and CNN each lost between six and ten trust points in a single year, suggesting active audience defection rather than passive disengagement.
- Despite the erosion, support for impartial journalism has held steady for six years, and online video is surging — pointing toward an audience that wants reformed journalism, not the absence of it.
For the first time in eleven years of tracking, global trust in news has sunk to a new low: 37 percent of people worldwide now believe what they read and watch. In the United States, that figure falls to 25 percent — the lowest among major economies — while the United Kingdom sits at 30 percent, a number that obscures a more dramatic story: a decade ago, British trust hovered near 50 percent.
Researchers point to a particular kind of fatigue. People feel let down by coverage of the issues closest to their lives — immigration, inflation, international conflict — sensing that something is missing, distorted, or shaped by unstated interests. And yet the same survey found that belief in what good journalism could be has barely moved in six years. The public has not given up on trustworthy information. They have simply stopped believing they are receiving it.
Where audiences are going instead reveals the contradiction. More than half now turn to social media and video platforms as primary news sources, yet trust in news found there is only 22 percent. People are choosing ease over belief. AI chatbots fare worse still at 20 percent trust, even as weekly usage climbs — especially among those under 35.
Online video has become the dominant format in nearly every market, surpassing broadcast television almost everywhere. Major outlets have absorbed serious damage: CBS and Fox News each lost ten trust points in a single year; CNN dropped six. Among right-leaning Americans, trust has fallen to 15 percent — less skepticism than outright rejection.
What the data ultimately describes is not an audience walking away from news, but one searching for a different relationship with it — less formal, less distant, more connected to lived experience. The question is whether journalism can close that gap before it becomes permanent.
For the first time since the Reuters Institute began measuring public confidence in news eleven years ago, trust has collapsed to a new floor. The latest annual survey, released this week, found that just 37 percent of people worldwide now believe the news they encounter—a three-point drop from the previous year and a steady erosion that shows no sign of stopping.
The picture darkens considerably in English-speaking markets. In the United States, trust stands at 25 percent, making it the lowest among major economies tracked by the research. The United Kingdom fares only marginally better at 30 percent, though that figure masks a steeper historical decline: a decade ago, trust in British news hovered around 50 percent. The gap between then and now is not a gradual drift but a chasm.
The institute's researchers attribute much of this collapse to a specific kind of exhaustion. Audiences report feeling anxious, disengaged, and cynical about how publishers handle the stories that dominate their lives—immigration, inflation, international conflict. These are not marginal concerns. They are the subjects people care about most, and the sense that coverage is missing something, or getting it wrong, or serving some unstated agenda, has corroded confidence across the board. Yet the same research also found something unexpected: belief in what good journalism can accomplish remains surprisingly robust. Support for impartial news has barely budged in six years, suggesting the problem is not that people have stopped wanting trustworthy information. They simply no longer believe they are getting it.
Where people are turning instead tells its own story. More than half of respondents now rely on social media platforms and video networks as primary news sources, a shift that has accelerated in recent years. Yet trust in news encountered through social media sits at just 22 percent—less than two-thirds of overall trust levels. The disconnect is stark: people are going where the news is easiest to find, not where they believe it most. Artificial intelligence chatbots fare even worse, with only 20 percent of respondents expressing confidence in them as news sources, despite weekly usage climbing from 7 to 10 percent globally and reaching 16 percent among people under 35.
Creators and influencers have captured significant attention in the media landscape, yet they remain a supplement rather than a replacement. Only one in ten survey respondents said that creators and influencers met most of their news needs, indicating that even as audiences fragment across platforms, they have not abandoned the idea that professional journalism serves a purpose traditional social media cannot.
Online video has become the dominant format almost everywhere. Seventy-seven percent of people globally now watch news video online each week, and it has surpassed broadcast television in every market except Germany, Denmark, and the Netherlands. This shift is not evidence that audiences have stopped wanting news, the institute concluded. Rather, it suggests they want news to feel more immediate, more comprehensible, and more connected to their actual lives. The format matters as much as the source.
Some of the largest news organizations have suffered visible damage. CBS News and Fox News each lost ten points of trust between 2025 and this year. CNN dropped six points. These are not small movements in a stable market; they suggest active loss of confidence among viewers who once formed the core audience for these outlets. The political dimension adds another layer: among Americans who identify as right-leaning, trust in news has fallen to just 15 percent, a figure that suggests not merely skepticism but something closer to rejection.
What emerges from the data is not a picture of people abandoning news altogether, but of a public searching for a different relationship with it. They are moving toward formats that feel less formal, less institutional, less distant. They are skeptical of the gatekeepers but not of the idea that reliable information matters. The question now is whether traditional news organizations can adapt to what audiences are actually asking for—or whether the gap between what people want and what they are being offered will continue to widen.
Notable Quotes
The data points to a mix of anxiety, disengagement and cynicism from audiences, many of whom don't like the way publishers are covering long-running news stories such as immigration, inflation and international conflict.— Reuters Institute
The popularity of creators and online video is not evidence that people no longer want news, but it suggests they want news to feel more accessible, more understandable, and more relevant to their lives.— Reuters Institute
The Hearth Conversation Another angle on the story
Why has trust fallen so far, so fast? What changed?
The research points to a specific kind of fatigue. People feel the big stories—immigration, inflation, conflict—are being covered in ways that don't match their own experience or concerns. It's not that they stopped wanting news. They stopped believing what they were getting was honest.
But people are still consuming news, just from different places. Doesn't that suggest they found alternatives they trust more?
Not quite. They're going to social media and video platforms, but they trust those sources even less than traditional news. It's more like they're choosing convenience over confidence.
So what do they actually want?
The data suggests they want news to feel accessible and relevant to their lives. Less institutional distance. Less sense that someone else is deciding what matters. The popularity of online video isn't about abandoning journalism—it's about wanting journalism to feel different.
Is there any good news in these numbers?
Yes. Support for impartial news hasn't collapsed. People still believe in the idea of trustworthy information. They just don't think they're getting it right now.
What about the political divide? The 15 percent figure for right-leaning Americans is striking.
It suggests that for some audiences, skepticism has hardened into something closer to rejection. That's a different problem than general erosion of trust. It's more like a break.