Media trust varies sharply by the type of outlet people use, their age, political affiliation and country. In October 2025, 56% of U.S. adults trusted information from national news organizations at least somewhat, compared with 70% for local news organizations. Younger adults and students therefore encounter a media environment in which local outlets can command more confidence than national news, while social platforms remain an important but unevenly trusted source.
Contents
- National, local and social media trust
- Political differences in trust
- Age and generational patterns
- What people expect from local journalism
- How Americans get and pay for local news
- Long-term U.S. confidence in mass media
- International comparisons
National, local and social media trust
The clearest pattern in the October 2025 Pew Research Center figures is the gap between local and national news. Overall, 70% of U.S. adults said they had a lot or some trust in information from local news organizations. The comparable figure for national news organizations was 56%, a difference of 14 percentage points.
Social media sites occupied a different position. Among Republicans and Republican-leaning independents, 37% said they had at least some trust in social media sites. The figure was also 37% among Democrats and Democratic leaners. That equal result does not mean people use every platform in the same way, but it does show that broad partisan identity alone did not separate the two groups on this measure.
For adults under 50, 52% expressed a lot or some trust in national news organizations. Among adults under 30, the figure was 51%. The under-30 group also reported 50% trust in social media sites. These results put younger adults close to an even split on trust in national news and social media, while local news had a higher overall trust level among U.S. adults.
Political differences in trust
Pew Research Center’s October 2025 results show a substantial partisan difference for national and local news organizations. Among Republicans and Republican-leaning independents, 44% said they had at least some trust in national news organizations. The corresponding figure among Democrats and Democratic leaners was 69%.
Trust was higher for local news in both groups, but the Democratic advantage remained. Sixty-four percent of Republicans and Republican leaners trusted local news organizations at least somewhat, compared with 78% of Democrats and Democratic leaners.
| Group | National news trust | Local news trust | Social media trust |
|---|---|---|---|
| Republicans and Republican leaners | 44% | 64% | 37% |
| Democrats and Democratic leaners | 69% | 78% | 37% |
The local-news figures are important for campus communities because local reporting often covers the places where students live, study and work. The data show that local organizations had more trust than national organizations among both partisan groups: 20 percentage points higher among Republicans and 9 points higher among Democrats. Those are direct differences between the reported percentages, not a measure of individual-level change.
Age and generational patterns
Age differences are visible within both partisan groups. Among Democrats, 79% of adults ages 65 and older said they had at least some trust in national news organizations, compared with 73% of Democrats ages 50 to 64, 66% of those ages 30 to 49 and 61% of those under 30. The reported Democratic figures decline across the younger age groups.
Among Republicans, 50% of adults ages 65 and older trusted national news organizations, compared with 42% of Republicans ages 18 to 29. Pew Research Center also reported that between 61% and 66% of Republicans across age groups trusted local news organizations. Because that local result is a range rather than separate percentages for each age band, it does not identify which age group was at each endpoint.
The broader under-30 result is also notable. In October 2025, 51% of U.S. adults under 30 said they had a lot or some trust in national news organizations, while 50% said they had at least some trust in social media sites. The comparison is close, but the survey wording and the source categories should be kept distinct: one figure concerns national news organizations and the other concerns social media sites.
A separate October 2024 Pew Research Center measure found that 76% of Americans ages 18 to 29 trusted local news organizations. That estimate comes from a different measurement period than the October 2025 figures, so it should be read as a separate snapshot rather than a direct year-to-year trend.
What people expect from local journalism
In May 2024, 85% of U.S. adults said local news outlets were at least somewhat important to the well-being of their local community. Forty-four percent called them extremely or very important. The two measures describe different thresholds of importance: the first includes somewhat important, while the second uses the stronger extremely-or-very-important category.
People also rated several local journalism practices positively. Sixty-nine percent said local journalists in their area were mostly in touch with their community. Seventy-one percent said local journalists were doing a good job of reporting news accurately, and 68% said they were doing a good job covering the most important stories and issues.
Transparency received a lower, but still majority, positive rating. Sixty-three percent said local journalists were doing a good job being transparent about their reporting. Sixty-one percent said local journalists were doing a good job keeping an eye on local political leaders.
The negative responses highlight where confidence is less secure. Thirty-five percent said local news media were not doing well at keeping an eye on local political leaders. Thirty-four percent said local news media were not doing well at being transparent about their reporting. These figures concern perceived performance in specific areas, not overall trust in every local outlet.
How Americans get and pay for local news
Local television remained a common route to local information in May 2024. Sixty-four percent of U.S. adults said they often or sometimes got local news from local television stations. Pew Research Center reported that the comparable figure was 70% in 2018, compared with 64% in 2024. This is a six-percentage-point decline between the two reported survey years.
Local daily newspaper audiences used multiple formats in the 2018 measure. Among U.S. adults who got news from local daily newspapers in 2018, 54% got it in print, while 43% got it via a website, app, email or social media site. These percentages describe ways of receiving local daily newspaper news in that measurement and should not be treated as the share of all adults using each format.
Payment for local news was uncommon in the May 2024 figures. Eighty-five percent of U.S. adults said they had not paid for local news in the past year, while 15% said they had paid. Among non-paying local-news consumers, 49% said the main reason was that there were plenty of free alternatives. Thirty percent said the main reason was a lack of interest in local news, and 10% said the news was not good enough.
For students and campus readers, these payment results describe an information market where perceived importance can coexist with limited direct payment. The figures support that distinction without establishing why any particular student chooses a free article, television report, newsletter or social post.
Long-term U.S. confidence in mass media
Gallup’s September 2024 measure used a different question from the Pew Research Center trust figures. It asked about confidence in mass media to report the news fully, accurately and fairly. Thirty-one percent of Americans said they had a great deal or fair amount of confidence. At the other end, 36% said they had no trust at all, while 33% said they had not very much confidence.
The same Gallup report listed the share expressing a great deal or fair amount of confidence at 32% in 2023, 34% in 2022, 36% in 2021 and 40% in 2020. The reported sequence is:
| Year | Great deal or fair amount of confidence |
|---|---|
| 2020 | 40% |
| 2021 | 36% |
| 2022 | 34% |
| 2023 | 32% |
| 2024 | 31% |
These figures show the level reported by Gallup for each year. They use the term mass media and a standard of reporting fully, accurately and fairly, so they are not interchangeable with the Pew measures of trust in national news organizations, local news organizations or social media sites.
International comparisons
The Reuters Institute Digital News Report 2024 reported that 40% of respondents across 47 markets said they trusted most news most of the time. The U.S. had an overall trust level of 32% in that report, below the cross-market figure.
The country results varied widely. Finland had the highest overall trust level at 69%. Morocco had a trust rating of 31%. Greece and Hungary each had an overall trust level of 23%.
| Market or comparison | Overall news trust |
|---|---|
| Finland | 69% |
| 47-market average | 40% |
| United States | 32% |
| Morocco | 31% |
| Greece | 23% |
| Hungary | 23% |
The international figures use the Reuters Institute’s overall trust measure, while the U.S. figures from Pew Research Center and Gallup use different questions, populations or source categories. Comparing them can show the range of reported trust levels, but it cannot turn the surveys into one unified time series. For readers evaluating campus news, the practical lesson is to check the outlet, the reporting standard and the measurement context before treating any single trust percentage as a complete picture.