Edelman attitude survey finds “unprecedented” plunge in trust in government - whilst media becomes more trustworthy
An annual ‘barometer’ of the level of trust individual’s harbour toward government, business, media and non-governmental organisations has registered an “unprecedented” nine point decline in trust in government across 12 nations.
This saw a nine point global decline in trust toward elected officials, tipping many countries into a “distruster” category in which a majority have no faith in the ability of their governments to do their job.
Explaining the trend the reports author, Richard Edelman, said: “Political brinkmanship on the debt ceiling in the United States, dysfunction on bailouts in the European Union, corruption in Brazil and India, and a natural disaster in Japan drove the downward trend.”
Edelman added however that business shouldn’t be cheered by government “ineptitude”, pointing out that “trust in the two institutions tend to move in sync.”
In the media sphere Edelman found that the public continue to reserve greatest trust for traditional media sources such as newspapers but new media was the biggest percentage gainer in trust, jumping by a whopping 75%.
This reflected a wider rise in trust for all media sources in the UK with television, radio and newspapers rising by 25, 17 and 17 points respectively.