Online Filipinos trust social media more than traditional media — poll

Filipinos online trust social media more than they trust traditional media, a nationwide survey revealed on Tuesday.

The fifth Philippine Trust Index (PTI) showed more Filipinos who have access to the Internet trusted social media more than the traditional media: 9 out of 10 Filipinos, or 87.3 percent, trust social media, while 7 out of 10, or 73.4 percent, trust traditional media.

The survey, led by communications agency EON, collected responses from 1,200 Filipinos aged 18 and above from March to April 2017. Among this pool was a sample of 600 “informed public,” or Filipinos who were at least 25 years old with at least three years of tertiary education and tune in to news updates at least twice a week.

The poll noted that of the 1,200 Filipinos surveyed, 49 percent or 588 individuals have access to the Internet.

Three out of 10 online Filipinos or 29.3 percent have extreme trust in the new media, higher than the 2 out of 10 people or 24.1 percent who have extreme trust in traditional media.

Interestingly, more people simply distrust traditional media than social media: 5 percent of online Filipinos extremely distrust traditional media, far from the 0.5 percent of people who distrust social media.

The results were a bane for the press as it reflected the public’s perception of the media’s lacking integrity, EON Chief Innovation Officer Mori Rodriguez said during the PTI’s launch at the Maybank Performing Arts Theater.

“However, while Filipinos generally perceive the media to be skilled in the work they do, Filipinos, most especially the informed public, find the integrity of the media lacking,” Rodriguez said.

“This does not go well for media. And the decline in the extreme trust in this institution underscores the importance of improving the media’s reputation both from within and without,” he added.

From 32 percent in 2015, extreme trust in the media fell 4 percentage points to 28 percent in 2017, the PTI showed.

But while social media has drawn more trust among online Filipinos, traditional media — television, radio, and newspapers — remained as the most trusted media channels among Filipinos in general, far surpassing the overall level of trust in social media sites.

TV networks got 89 percent trust rating, radio with 85 percent, and newspapers with 75 percent.

Social media sites, on the other hand, got 55 percent, slightly higher than online news sites at 54 percent.

Rodriguez said it is important for organizations to “take control of the conversation” by capitalizing on social media by establishing their own social media assets as official sources of information.

“This clearly means that it is critical for organizations to invest in digital [communications],” he said.

“Social media has democratized information dissemination but the risk is likewise great for people who view social media in the responsible or even in malicious ways,” he noted. JE