Forty-five percent of Americans have a great deal or fair amount of trust in the mass media to report the news “fully, accurately and fairly,” representing a continued recovery from the all-time low of 32% in 2016. Media trust is now the highest it has been since 2009 but remains below what it was in the late 1990s and early 2000s.

When Gallup first asked Americans to evaluate the mass media in a 1972 survey, 68% said they trusted it a great deal or a fair amount. In 1974 and 1976 surveys, trust remained near 70%.

Two decades later, the next time Gallup asked the question, trust in the media had fallen to 53%.