University of Canberra’s preeminent annual report on trust in the news ecosystem sees SBS move to number one for all public and commercial media.
National broadcaster SBS has been named the most trusted news brand in Australia by the University of Canberra and Reuters Institute for the Study of Journalism’s annual global Digital News Report 2024.
Each year the report delivers comparative data on media usage in 47 countries including Australia. The University of Canberra conducts the Australian research for the global report, examining Australians’ attitudes to news and journalism and in recent years has charted the declining trust and growing misinformation within the news and social media ecosystems.
Commenting on the report’s findings SBS News Director Mandi Wicks said: “As SBS prepares to move into our 50th year, this report is a strong validation of the work our teams do across all news platforms to provide accurate, impartial and trustworthy news and information to all Australians.
“With more people consuming their news through social media platforms, the presence of trusted brands in that space is more crucial than ever.”
Screenshot from the University of Canberra report looking at trust in news brands in 2024.
In addition to SBS World News’ nightly TV bulletins and comprehensive digital offerings, SBS Audio also serves millions of diverse Australians through multilingual audio services across radio and digital/podcasting in more than 60 languages.
Acting Director of SBS Audio Pamela Cook added: “We work hard each day to preserve the trust our audiences have in us. Our producers serve communities in more than 60 languages, and that is enabled because of the deep connections and trust we’ve built and nurtured which often means we tell the stories that others don’t or can’t.”
The Digital News Report also noted the growing concern about misinformation in Australia, which rose to 75% from 64% in 2022 and that audiences are reporting greater difficulty in identifying untrustworthy information.
Writing in the report, Wicks commented on the importance of trust especially in a climate where the use of artificial intelligence is being increasingly used in news.
“Trust in news has been declining during the past few years, news avoidance has been increasing, and misinformation and disinformation pervade our social feeds and threaten to undermine our democratic way of life,” wrote Wicks.
“The role is increasingly falling to news publishers to report on the news of the day, to combat ‘fake news’ and to moderate hate speech on their social media profiles, comments which are often AI generated via bots.
“Newsrooms grappled with this during the Voice Referendum in 2023 and there will be similar challenges in 2024 with AI having the potential to influence domestic and geopolitical issues, with more than 60 countries and nearly half the world’s population going to the polls in 2024.”
For a pdf copy of this release, click here.