TV most trusted source of News

The internet has overtaken TV as Australia’s main source of news over the last two years -but TV is the most trusted source.

New research from Roy Morgan reveals over 12.7 million Australians (60.8%) now say the internet is a main source of news, up 1.4 million since 2018, including nearly 7.9 million Australians (37.7%) specifically nominating Social Media.

The number of Australians who say TV is their main source of news has dipped 1 million over the last two years to 12.4 million or 59.4%. However, TV remains clearly the most trusted source of news for Australians (mentioned by 33.4%, but down 4.9% points on two years ago), ahead of the internet on 25.7% (up 3.6% points). The internet is split between several different channels including news or newspaper websites/apps, social media, news feed sites such as Google News, Apple News, Feedly etc. and email subscriptions or updates.

Most Trusted Source of News

Source: Roy Morgan Single Source April 2017 – March 2018, n=50,014, April 2019 – March 2020, n=48,935.
Base: Australians 14+. *TV including free-to-air TV and Pay TV.

Michele Levine, CEO, Roy Morgan, says: “As the world increases its levels of digital communication, one could be forgiven for thinking ‘traditional media’ is being left behind. However, the latest research from Roy Morgan, which specifically focuses on the use of, and trust in, news sources clearly shows that TV remains Australians’ most trusted source of news – and while the internet is now the most common source of news for Australians, TV is still one of Australians’ main sources of news. Additionally, large portions of the population continue to rely on radio and newspapers for their news.

“The proliferation of new digital media such as ‘social media’ in recent years coupled with the era of ‘fake news’ has put a premium on ‘trust’ in media. Traditional media channels such as TV, radio, and newspapers that have built a high degree of trust over many decades do retain an advantage against new digital media. However, over the last two years Roy Morgan has revealed Internet channels are increasingly being relied upon to provide trusted sources of news.”

These latest findings are drawn from the Roy Morgan Single Source survey, derived from in-depth interviews with 50,000 Australians each year.