Trusting the Media

The majority (72%) of the public does not trust Greek television: specifically, 36.5% of the sample responded that they trust it “only a little” and 35.5% “not at all”. 21.5% respond that they trust it “fairly much”, while 5.5% say they trust it very much or completely.

It is characteristic that the sample diversifies when the degree of trust in television is studied in relation to individual characteristics of the respondents: when it comes to the 17-34 age group, the percentage stating they do not trust television increases to 84%, while the corresponding percentages in the age groups 35-54 and 55 and over are 73% and 62% respectively. Distrust in television rises to 75% and 77% for university graduates and postgraduates respectively, while the corresponding percentage is 66.5% for those with secondary or lower level of education.

The degree of trust in Greek television also seems to vary according to the political self-identification of the sample on the Left-Right political spectrum: 89.5% and 82% of those who state that they are politically positioned on the Left and Center-Left respectively, say that they do not trust television, while the corresponding percentage is 58% and 51% in the case of those who state that they are politically positioned on the Right and Center-Right respectively. In fact, even those who say that the Left-Right political spectrum does not represent them express distrust in television by 76.5%.

36.5% say that they trust the radio fairly much, while 10% say they trust it very much or completely. On the contrary, 44% do not trust the radio: in particular, 31% say they trust it “only a little”, while 13% “not at all”. At the same time, one in ten (9.5%) respond that they don’t know/no answer, while the corresponding percentage in the same question for television is only 1%. Younger people (51% of the 17-34 age group) seem to distrust radio more than older people (37.5% of those aged 55 and over).

46.5% do not trust newspapers and magazines, with 27% and 19.5% indicating little and no trust respectively. 31.5% say they trust the print media “fairly much”, while 11% say they trust them “very much” or “completely”. As much of the sample (11%) responded that they don’t know/no answer. Those who declare that they are politically positioned on the Left and the Center-Left express distrust in the print media by 50.5% and 55.5% respectively, while the corresponding percentages “drop” to 46% and 32.5% for those who identify themselves politically on the Right and the Center-Right respectively.

One in two respondents say they do not trust websites for obtaining news, with 36.5% showing little trust and 13.5% “not at all". 36% say they trust them "fairly much", while 7.5% show a lot or complete trust. When the analysis is broken down by age group of respondents, younger people (the 17-34 age group) appear to be comparatively more skeptical, as they answer that they trust websites “only a little” or “not at all” by 70.5%, while the corresponding percentage decreases to 63.5% for the 35-54 age group and “drops” to 52.5% for those aged 55 and over. Those who declare that they are politically positioned on the Left and the Center-Left express distrust towards websites by 78% and 69.5% respectively, while the corresponding percentages “drop” to 49% and 41% for those who identify themselves politically on the Right and the Center-Right respectively.

Regarding the lack of trust, on the one hand, especially towards nationwide media and, on the other hand, especially towards local media, the two categories present a similar picture: a total of 61% distrust nationwide media and a total of 57.5% distrust local media. However, 24.5% say they do not trust nationwide media at all, while the percentage of zero trust in local media decreases to 13.5%.

Participants are divided when asked specifically about the news published/broadcast by local media: 48.5% consider them untrustworthy, but 47% think the opposite. Asked respectively about news published/broadcast by nationwide media, six in ten responded that they are not trustworthy.