The trust in news crisis in NZ

AUT have published their 5th annual trust in news report and the results are devastating. Rather than blame their woes on Google and Meta, every media organisation in NZ should be critically self-reflective on how they have contributed to this distrust, and what they could do differently to improve things.

Some key data:

• NZers who trust the news has fallen from 53% in 2020 to 33% in 2024
• The drop just in the last 12 months was 9%
• This is not due to international trends. In 2020 NZ was 11% above the global average of 42% and in 2024 NZ was 7% below the global average of 40%. This is about NZ media.
• Trust in news is significantly lower than Australia and Canada
• NZ has the highest proportion (75%) of people who actively avoid the news or selected media
• The only news brand with a (just) positive score is ODT on 5/10
• Radio NZ has gone from 7.0 to 4.9
• TVNZ from 6.8 to 4.8
• NZ Herald from 6.3 to 4.7
• Stuff from 6.1 to 4.6
• 87% of those who distrust news think the news is biased and not balanced
• 82% think news too much reflects the political leanings of newsrooms
• 59% think Government support for the media means you can’t trust media to hold Govt to account

In any normal industry this would be seen as a crisis. When so many think you are biased and not balanced, your number one priority should be how to fix it, rather than deny it.

Amusingly one journalist in a fit of irony tweeted that the 20% drop was all due to the Atlas Network. You couldn’t be funnier if you tried.

Here’s some things media could to restore trust:

• Welcome diversity of political views amongst staff (and by that I don’t just mean diversity between hard left and centre left) so centre-right people would feel welcome in your organisation
• Abolish corporate policies that forbid people to have conservative views on issues such as whether men can get pregnant
• Don’t have topics where you don’t allow debate such as on the Treaty, trans issues, preferred climate change response etc
• Ensure you have some journalists who don’t automatically think equality of outcome is desirable, as opposed to equality of opportunity
• Have more journalists who understand economics
• Have more journalists who will as aggressively interview Te Pati Maori and Green MPs as they do ACT and NZ First MPs

Or you can ignore all off the above and conclude the public, like me, are the ones who are wrong and there is no need to change anything – you just need more money from taxpayers or social media companies.