Trust in mass media has declined to 40%, hitting an all-time low since 1997, due to the increase in media outlets.

Source: www.veteransnewsnow.com

Mass media expanded throughout the years with new social network sites and platforms available to cater to specific audiences. With the increase in mass media outlets, hostile media perception, potential to influence others, and increased public point of views have led to the public mistrusting mass media.

Hostile media perception, known as the perception that information given off by mass media is hostile to their own opinions, was studied by Albert Gunther and Kathleen Schmitt to determine why so many newspaper editors were receiving criticism saying that their news report was biased. It was found that information given off in only mass media caused hostile media perception to partisans.

Information reported on mass media is seeing as biased, but not when reported on a low-circulation report. 

To find these results, the authors presented the same information on genetically modified (GM) food to participants through mass media or a students essay. Biases and hostile media perception were measured by participants that were pro GM foods and anti GM foods. It was found that in the mass media condition, pro and anti GM foods participants experienced biases and hostile media perception, while in the student essay report, no biases and hostile media perception was experienced by pro GM and anti GM participants. The study discussed that the mass media effect is caused by a sense of broad reach and by the potential to influence others.

Americans trust in mass media declined by 13% since 1997. 

Source: www.gallup.com

To illustrate the decline in Americas trust in mass media, Gallup, a performance-management consulting company, found that there has been a 13% decrease in mass media trust. In 1997, 53% of Americans claimed to trust mass media (newspapers, TV, and radio) a great deal and a fair amount, while in 2014 only 40% did.

When observing political parties, liberals were said to trust mass media more than republicans due to the fact that 44% of Americans believe that news media is too liberal. From 1997, liberal trust in the mass media declined by 10%, from 64% to 54% in 2014, while republicans trust declined by 14%, from 41% to 27% in 2014.

Gallup also observed trust and the perception of media bias by party and ideology. Since 1997, Democrats and Republicans trust in the mass media has also declined, with the Republicans taking the lead. In 1997, 64% of Democrats trusted mass media a great deal and a fair amount, while in 2004 only 54% did. For the Republicans, 41% claimed to trust mass media while in 2014, only 27% did.

34% of Americans believe the media is not too liberal or too conservative, but just right.

Source: www.gallup.com

44% of Americans currently believe the media is too liberal, with only 34% believing it is just about right. Within the Democrats, 52% believe it is just about right and not too liberal and not too conservative, while 18% of Republicans believe it is just about right.

These low percentages of Americans believing the media is just about right, brings into perspective the amount of biases that Americans perceive mass media to contain and how hard it is for people to actually believe in a mass media source.

News media perceived to perform negatively. 

Data from www.usnews.com

Pew Research Center found that Americans believe the press to perform negatively with 66% stating news stories are often inaccurate, 77% believe news organizations favor one specific side, and 80% believe news organizations are influenced by powerful people and organizations.

Pew also stated that local news organizations are more trusted than national news organizations, with 69% stating they trust local news a lot or some, while 59% saying they trust the national news a lot or some. This finding corresponds to Gunther and Schmitt's results that low-circulation reports were more trusted than mass media reports.

Broad audience reach and ability to influence causes skepticism. 

The decline in mass media trust is a cause of the increase in media outlets due to the potential to influence others and the sense of a broad reach, causing Americans to be skeptic of the information that mass media provides them. As Pew's data states, most Americans believe news organizations are influenced by powerful people and organizations which their objective is to skew their audience to favor their view points and create agreeableness. With this in mind, most people will see media content as biased and always second guess the information that is being given to them.

With increased mass media, comes along increased public opinion as the public has more platforms to state their opinions and agree or disagree with said mass media contents. Facebook is a perfect example as people can share their opinion on a said topic by any news corporation and bring along different facts and research to back up their opinion for their Facebook friends and the public to see.

California woman expresses on Facebook her believe of UFO sighting by the strange light in skies.  

To illustrate how public opinion has increased, on November 7, 2015, hundreds of people in California were shocked by the strange light that occurred in the skies, and took their opinions about it to Facebook and other social media outlets. Doubtful News (DN), a privately owned news source, described how a woman named Gianna Peptonis published her opinion and experience of the strange light on Facebook, stating that the light was caused by UFOs and how she found a dead UFO outside her house, posting pictures of the so-called "dead UFO". Peptoni's Facebook is filled with statements on how the government is hiding information from the public about UFOs, while others also comment and describes their own point of view on the subject. DN also contributes their opinion in their article and disagrees with Peptoni's statement that the picture she posted is not actually a dead UFO and claims it is just a dead animal.

Peptoni's example illustrates how increased media outlets and platforms allows people to express their opinions, which increases mass media skepticism and makes people question whether what they are being told is correct or biased.

With mass media having the ability to reach so many people, be influenced by bigger and powerful people and organizations, able to influence so many people, and have increased in outlets decreases the masses trust and creates hostile media perception and skepticism on the information being provided.

This lack of mass media trust can lead Americans to ignore factual information, believe the public and government is against their opinions, or even cause drastic actions. A result to this would be for low-circulation reports to publicize important, truthful information to the public and to take action to maintain the reliability and trust they have with the public.