Print emerges as the most reliable news source: Survey report

At a time when the battle for TRPs has made a section of TV news fall into new depths, a timely survey titled News Credibility Index by a media consulting firm, Ormax Media, has found print media to be the most credible source of news compared to TV and digital media.

While TV news scored a 56% and radio 57%, print emerged as the clear winner with a 62% score. The survey was carried out across 17 states recording responses from 2400 urban news consumers over the age of 15 years.

Summary of findings of our report on credibility of news media in India, titled 'Fact or Fake?' (1/4)
The research was conducted across 2,600 news consumers in 17 states & UTs in India in Aug-Sep 2020.#FactOrFake #MediaCredibility pic.twitter.com/kT5bkgwAVy

— Ormax Media (@OrmaxMedia) September 18, 2020

According to the survey results, fake news was a major concern for 61% of news consumers. Despite the ever-rising reach of digital and social media, the survey found their credibility as a news source at a mere 32%. Whatsapp and other similar messaging apps scored even lower--29%.

With Twitter becoming increasingly entwined with the news cycle, it was not surprising that the platform emerged as the most credible news source compared to other such platforms. However, with 53%, it scored one per cent higher than TV news, which in itself says a lot about the state of TV news in the country.

Speaking to The Economic Times, Shailesh Kapoor, founder & CEO, Ormax Media, said, “Concerns related to fake news have been a topic of discussion globally as well as in India, and the problem of fake news seems to be getting larger with every passing month. This survey was conducted to quantify the extent of this concern in India, and to understand if some media fare better than others. We plan to track these measures every six months, which will allow us to compare how perception of news consumers regarding fake news is changing with time.”

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