Media Insider: AUT trust in news survey – trust scores bounce back for individual news outlets; NZ’s most trusted media sources revealed

Who are the most trusted news media organisations in New Zealand? A new survey suggests trust in news outlets is stabilising but it is still low by international standards. The full report and how media can rebuild trust. Trust in the news media is showing signs of stabilisation after years of steep decline, according to AUT’s annual survey, with individual outlets all recording improvements in trust levels in the past 12 months.

But trust levels in media are still low overall in New Zealand compared with other countries, with 32% of the 1058 survey respondents saying they trusted the news in general, compared with 33% in 2024. The score in early 2020, pre-Covid, was 53%. It’s happier news for individual outlets, however, with all of those measured, including the NZ Herald , Stuff, RNZ, TVNZ and Newstalk ZB, improving on their 2024 results.



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