Poll: Majority of Americans no longer trust mainstream media, ad revenues PLUMMET

Apparently, much of the rest of the world finds itself in similar circumstances, as people everywhere have lost trust in the traditional media institutions that have informed and shaped societies for decades.

Traditional leagcy media has been suffering lately, losing ratings, and, consequently, losing advertiser dollars, which have been massively shifting to entities such as Facebook and Google. Fox News has been showing strongly, as people migrate away more and more from mainstream media:

Axios, the outlet who commissions this "trust barometer" poll on a yearly basis, said about the poll results, "News organizations have historically relied mainly on advertising income, and as those dollars flow increasingly to Google and Facebook, that has created institutional weakness that shows up in trust data."

"Reversing the decline is a monster task — and one that some journalists and news organizations have taken upon themselves. They're going to need help — perhaps from America's CEOs."

The poll itself asked respondents if they agreed with the following two statements:

• "Journalists and reporters are purposely trying to mislead people by saying things they know are false or gross exaggerations."
• "Most news organizations are more concerned with supporting an ideology or political position than with informing the public."

To the first question, 56 percent of Americans responded negatively. To the second, 58 percent did not agree.

As far as social media goes, the statistics show even less trust. A mere 27 percent of Americans trust what they see on social media.