Data Source: National Opinion Research Center General Social Survey (NORC GSS)

Tools Used: Microsoft Excel for data analysis, Node.js for data processing, React.js for data visualization. Affinity Designer for adding additional titles and labels.

I find it really interesting how you can see the large drops in economic confidence during the financial crises and the decline of confidence in the press since the rise of the internet

I just want to point out that perception and reality are two vastly different things. The government and media was doing shady stuff this whole time, we're just more aware of it now. To a certain extent this increased distrust is a good thing. Unfortunately most people still only have one eye open. They're just noticing the shady stuff the "other side" is doing while being completely blind to their own sides shortcomings.

How much of the distrust in the press was trump screaming about the lying press to help cover his shit up? So now people move into psycho qanon webpage stuff.

Not much since the big decline happened in the 1990s and the trend is downward across this entire graph all the way back to the 1970s.

You just proved OP’s point lmfao

Fair enough.

Wtf are you babbling about?

RE: Press, this doesn't surprise me. Anyone can call themselves a journalist for any reason without any standards for information accuracy or completeness. Before the internet, all we had were tabloids and trash TV which had a very real cost to produce. Now you can be a "Youtube Journalist", monetize your videos, and drive ad revenue.

Most other countries already recognize the news and press as being limited and propagandized heavily.

I could see, and get behind, an industry or state organization that certifies journalists. Something like the bar for lawyers or board certification for doctors. A stamp that legit journalists can put on their material that indicates they have the requisite knowledge and ethics for serious journalism.

He said most people are too ignorant to view this outside of partisanship and your response was “but trump!!!!” Literally proving his point

I talk about this in my recent book, labeling it as a crisis of information, truth, and trust. It is becoming increasingly difficult to know what is and is not legitimate and that is having some profoundly negative consequences for individual and collective well being.

What really concerns me is that bias has now started to creep into academia and the scientific community. I always knew you couldn't trust the media spin, but increasingly now you can't even trust the "facts" and the "experts". I don't even know where a person can go now to find truth. I've often said if I were to magically become a Billionaire the thing I would want to spend my money on would be to set up an apolitical research institute that does nothing but try and determine the facts surrounding politicized issues.

[removed]

The Youtubers i watch show sources and how to find the information your self, quotes and stuff, while news papers don't..

Lol, no they don't. Ironic that you fell for that, though.

https://www.poynter.org/ethics-trust/2021/us-ranks-last-among-46-countries-in-trust-in-media-reuters-institute-report-finds/

Trying to trick us again, Mr Journalist?

Data seems to be off from other polls I’ve seen. Especially Supreme Court confidence which is currently showing at 78% but most polls I’ve seen are around 50% or lower.

Additionally, I’m skeptical of any poll that shows a 90%+ confidence in the US for anything

Here let me show you my shocked face 😑

[removed]

Well…it’s not like the government is as effective as it used to be

[deleted]

There should be 0 confidence…

1976-1982 was rough. Really rough.

Exactly what I was thinking. Pretty sure most people have little to no confidence.

what's more interesting to me is the confidence in the press experienced far sharper drop from the 70s to the dawn of the the digital age, than during the much longer digital age

85 to 60 in 20 years prior to digital age vs 60 to 50 in 30+ years since

is the question one of truth and trust, or one of consensus?

long gone are the days where we work in local, small, sub-urban communities and watch the same 30 min evening news and the same front page of the daily gazette or even the NYT/WSJ.

now everyone is subbed to a multitude of personal feeds on a multitude of apps from a multitude of sources, and work with people from all over the world, and no in the post pandemic era, literally virtual talking heads living in different part of the world at the same time.

do we even have a shared reality anymore?

I'd say both.

T&T because we are surrounded by systems that manipulate our behavior and beliefs for profit.

Consensus, because to your point, the nature of time and our experience as it is changing.

Cosmology and physics have recently revealed some natural authorities that bind our realities together. (infinite universes, the material nature of reality being momentary change)

Fairness doctrine really should've remained but Iran contra man didn't want that

I'm not saying there aren't good independent journalists. However, it's quite a challenge to separate the signal from the noise, especially if you're prone to confirmation bias.

That would draw the ire of constitutionalists, as such an organization would be in direct conflict with the 1st Amendment - freedom of the press.

Unfortunately, we can't teach common sense.

Fair. A state organization would have trouble getting legal footing, but an industry or professional organization, like the ADA or something, wouldn't. You still get the seal to use.

well ya. almost a quarter of the country is going to be homeless or displaced if something isn't done soon. Everything, legit sucks.