NEW REPORT: Still Only 1 in 3 Trust Media

What other industry would not be hugely embarrassed by these stats, and then wouldn't make significant changes rather than digging their heels in?

Before I give you the very latest polling, let’s just remind ourselves

1. At the end of last month (March), the Edelman Trust Barometer, a global study published every year revealed that while trust in media has slightly increased worldwide, trust in NZ media continues to slide.

We dropped to 35% - from 41% two years ago. (The drop they show is compared to last year). So it’s been a gradual drop over the years. 41% down to 35% in just 24 months.

But note the “global” trust rate. It’s increased!

Trust in news media worldwide has actually increased on average. NZ has gone against the trend – which is a real slight on our media, isn’t it.

So that’s March.

2. In February, the 2024 Quality of Life survey was released. It’s a collaborative local government research project which is run by Ipsos – a large international polling company. In 2024, a total of just under 7,000 respondents completed the Quality of Life survey – so that’s a significant survey. They asked amongst other things about trust in media.

This large poll shows that just 27% of kiwis have some level of trust for the news media.

Just under half of us (48%) have various levels of distrust – with the remaining 25% sitting on the fence.

3. Last October, a new survey by academics from Victoria University and University of Otago was reported, with an accompanying op-ed by the authors in EveningReport.nz.

They found that 60% of survey participants reported they sometimes, often, or almost always avoid the news. If you add in the “rarely avoid it” 81% avoid it to some extent.

But this total of 60% is higher than any other national figure reported in other studies. The average news avoidance across the 46 countries surveyed by Reuters was 32.6%.

The average. We’re almost double that! Yes – we have some of the highest rates of news avoidance in the world.

4. Also at the end of last year, the Human Rights Commission recently released new (Horizon) research on Treaty trust, and who do we trust and not trust for reliable information on the Treaty of Waitangi and the associated Treaty Principles Bill.

They surveyed at the end of 2023 and then again at the end of last year in the heat of the Treaty Principles Bill being introduced into Parliament and the associated Hikoi.

Only 13% - one three – 13% of us trust English-language news media to provide us with accurate information about the Treaty. It’s 16% for Maori-language news media.

So that means that 87% of us are suspicious of the information we’re receiving from the news media.

Shocking.

5. But probably one of the most significant surveys that even the NZ media notice – and sometimes even report – was released today.

How has the media fared – after another year of shocking reporting including their reporting of Green MP Benjamin Doyle, their atrocious coverage of the US election which totally embarrassed them, their unified action to cancel an advertisement we tried to place simply asking “what is a woman”, their shutting down of any debate on puberty blockers and transgender sports issues, and many other examples which I’m sure you can think of – and is probably the reason you can no longer watch the 6pm News or listen to the news on the radio or read the newspapers.

The Trust in News in Aotearoa New Zealand report is produced by the AUT research centre for Journalism, Media and Democracy (JMAD) in collaboration with the Reuters Institute for the Study of Journalism – a survey of 47 countries.

The slide continues. In 2020, 53% of New Zealanders trusted news in general. That figure is now at 32%. A 21 percentage point drop. Just 1 in 3 NZ’ers trust “most of the news most of the time”. So that’s not even “fully trust”.

In 2025, general trust in news in Aotearoa New Zealand (32%) was substantially lower than the 2024 Reuters Digital News Report’s international average of 47 countries (40%). Internationally, we’re competing with the US for the lowest levels of trust. That’s us in the blue. That’s the average in green.

In football table terms, we’re in the relegation zone!

Interestingly, interest in news is higher in New Zealand than in comparable markets, and people in other markets are more worn out by the news than New Zealanders

So what types of news do we want?

Most are interested in local news (72%), international news (70%) and political news (62%) and least interested in celebrity and entertainment news (21%) and fun news (26%).

Interestingly, social justice issues of race and gender was towards the bottom – around 34%.

Perhaps people are tired of the insanity – and want to get back to reality.

Where do we get our news?

Of the social-media platforms, Facebook was the main source of news for New Zealanders. “YouTube has grown fast as a news platform. While in 2024 33% of people used the videosharing platform as a source of news, in 2025 43% of respondents were using it for news. Approximately 39% of New Zealanders used Instagram and 17% TikTok as a news source.”

But the most popular were NZ Herald, TVNZ and Stuff.

And we tend to trust those we consume the most. Probably not a surprise.

Trust in news in general is falling, but what we specifically consume or choose to consume, is a little bit higher. Is that called confirmation bias?

Now here’s the interesting graph – and it’s the one the media have grabbed hold of. I’m not sure they should.

This table suggests that in 2025 trust in all news brands improved from 2024. Note – from 2024. That’s the far right column that they’ve highlighted.

But note the column that I’ve circled. It covers the last five years – and they’re all still in the negative. Double digit % negative in virtually all of them.

And look how low Newstalk ZB and the NZ Herald are – 5.4 and 5.5 respectively.

The report says “Those who most trust RNZ sit mostly on the left or centre-left; those who most trust TVNZ are mostly on the left, centre left and centre;…

Note that those are the two government funded media outlets!

… those who most trust the NZ Herald are mostly on the centre left, centre, and right; and those who most trust Newstalk ZB are mostly on the centre or right of the political spectrum.”

Look at this graph. Those towers. Those who most mistrust RNZ, TVNZ, Stuff and Newsroom are on the right of the political spectrum; those mistrusting Newstalk ZB tend to sit on the left on the political spectrum; most of those who mistrust the NZ Herald are on both the left or right. Maybe that’s a compliment to the NZ Herald.

Distrust of the media is shared by all age groups – that’s the tower on the left of each age group – but note the distrust of especially the 55-64 and 65-74 age groups.

Among both Māori and Pākehā there is significantly more mistrust of news than trust in it, compared to other ethnic groups

Those who trust news the least tend to sit on the right on the political spectrum – and that will be because of the political leanings of the media themselves – which they’ve admitted

Some other interesting stats.

Approximately 27% of New Zealanders had paid for a digital subscription or digital/print bundle to access online news content – higher than US, Australia and UK but about the same as Nordic countries on average

Approximately 85% of people said they trusted a news brand that was transparent and open; 81% trusted a news outlet that had high journalistic standards; and 80% trusted a brand that was not “unreasonably biased”.

Concerns were raised about

· Perceptions of bias and spin

· Political bias, pushing ideological agendas – often left-leaning or inconsistent

· Blurred line between fact and opinion

· Marginalisation of dissenting voices

So how did the media elite immediately respond to this?

1News said “Trust in news stabilises after sharp decline over five years”

The NZ Herald said “Trust scores bounce back for individual news outlets; NZ’s most trusted media sources revealed”

Radio NZ said “Trust in news survey slump stalls after five years in freefall”

Stuff said - Trust in media ‘stabilises’

Quite the sales pitch, isn’t it.

As I said at the start, what other industry would not be hugely embarrassed by these stats, and then wouldnt make significant changes rather than digging their heels in?

Oh, The Spinoff hasn’t reported it yet. Probably because they don’t want people to know that they have one of the lowest trust ratings for NZ news brands. Well-deserved though.

Here’s the key thing…

Nobody appeared to be asking – why do 2 in 3 kiwis still not trust us?

Much of this decline is happening because many kiwis can see for themselves the extreme bias coming from an increasingly woke media, and their selective use of information to support certain “progressive” agendas. Many people also believe the media has mostly become a marketing & PR department for the Government and are compromised by the government funding – you can see that in this survey.

And the numbers show that it’s not just right wing people turning off because its left wing, or left wing turning off because it’s right wing. It’s both. It’s not anti-mandate people or people who didn’t want the vaccine or climate change deniers or TERFs or white people.

This survey is showing that kiwis from all sides have had enough. 2 in 3 kiwis are saying – we don’t trust you. Do better.

Instead of reporting the news and presenting facts, the media has increasingly become activists pushing opinions instead of facts, trying to control the narrative. We’ve proved that through our analyses of how they covered the cannabis referendum, the ‘conversion therapy’ debate, the overturning of Roe V Wade, and the mandate protest on parliament grounds.

We deserve better. This report should actually be a wake-up call to the media if they want to avoid going bust, but, sadly, I suspect it won’t be.

Their desire to push an agenda outweighs their desire to survive. Individually there are some fantastic, committed journalists with integrity. But as an industry it’s on its knees.

Will it get back up again. I just don’t know. And as someone who was involved in the media, it is very sad that we’ve got to this point.