It turned out that a search engine such as Google was chosen as "the most reliable news source"

BySpencer E Holtaway

Speaking of information sources to grasp society's movements, media such as newspapers, television and radio were mainstream, but the situation has changed significantly due to the development of the Internet over the past few decades. From the latest results that we investigated about the sources most people trust, finally Google and Yahoo! It has become clear that online search engines such as, for example, are being supported as the most trusted news source.

Trust Around the World - 2015 Edelman Trust Barometer
http://www.edelman.com/insights/intellectual-property/2015-edelman-trust-barometer/trust-around-world/

The findings of this investigation were revealed by Edelman, a global PR company. The company conducts a survey on the reliability of governments, media, NGOs, companies, etc. around the world every year, and publishes the results.

According to the latest survey results released by Edelman, when searching for general news and information64% people trust online search engines (Online Search Engines), And it became clear that it exceeded the traditional media such as newspaper and television (Traditional Media) for the first time. Furthermore, it was born in the 1980s and 1990s and grew up in a digitized lifestyle, so-calledMillennial generationIn terms of its reliability72%And it has been revealed that it has drawn higher numbers.


This result is targeted at the so-called knowledge layer (Informed Public) with college degrees from 25 years old to 64 years old. It has also been found that social media and Own Media (media that companies and others send out for themselves) also show an increasing trend, but it is also clear that it is still lower than the Top 2 It is.

Furthermore, in the survey, the most used in the three cases of "the first information source to obtain general information", "the first information source to obtain the latest news", and "the information source to confirm the reliability of the news content" Investigate the media being done. Again, search engines have been found to be the most trusted source of information by making a difference to television and newspaper in almost all items.


The interesting thing here is that the so-called "search engines" such as Google do not transmit news themselves. For the existing media, we got information in the style of "receive what we are sending", whereas in the case of using search engines, the style of "searching for information subjectively" has become mainstream It was a result that suggested that it was.

In the following survey published by Edelman, in addition to the reliability of the media, the status of confidence in the governments, NGO organizations and companies of each country is shown.

2015 Edelman Trust Barometer - Global ResultsFromEdelman Insights


◆ Similar findings in Japan are also revealed
Edelman Japan, a Japanese corporation of Edelman, also publishes similar findings. The following contents are somewhat old information because of fiscal 2014, but you can read interesting contents compared with the situation in the world.

2014 Edelman Trust Barometer Japan Survey Results
http://www.edelman.jp/sites/jp/pages/insights.aspx?ItemID=42

In Japan as well, the online search engine has been chosen as the number one source of reliable information sources, but its value should be noted. Approximately in a global survey70%Although it is a search engine showing a high numerical value, in Japan44%It is said that it is distinctive that it stays in the numerical value, and that other media are not greatly different. Furthermore, as shown in the lower part of the slide, the reliability as general information and information source of the latest news is not so high, it is said that it is used as "information source for confirming reliability" to the end The difference with the world is highlighted.


It is interesting that it is content that shows that the degree of confidence in the information from the net is low still in Japan. Whether the reason is whether it is high in the reliability of the conventional media or whether there is a conservative national character that can not be easily transferred to the new media at the very bottom, so as to show Japan's uniqueness / specialty in any case It can be said that it is a result.

From the viewpoint of "go against the world", you can also find other interesting points. From 2013 to 2014, the results show that the reliability of the government increased from 32% to 45% in Japan ... ...


It is said that it tends to reverse the trend of the world. In many countries, the reliability of the government has declined, while it has become apparent that along with the United Arab Emirates and Australia the reliability to the government has been greatly improved in Japan.


Still, it is also interesting that the reliability to the government is still low in Japan. It may be said that this low reliability and the rapid increase from there are expressing the recent changes in the political situation.



In this way, it was Edelman 's findings that are showing interesting data. The investigation report can browse the full story from the following link.

2014 Edelman Trust BarometerFromEdelman Japan