By Pam Greenberg
Americans increasingly place their trust in social media sources—almost as much as or more than they trust traditional news outlets, according to some recent surveys.
The Social Media Election Survey Report, released in January by the George Washington University Graduate School of Political Management and ORI (a market research and business intelligence firm), examined social media in the 2012 election and its implications for political, business and civic institutions. According to reporter Byron Tau in Politico,
The survey finds that nearly two-thirds of voters reported that political information on social media was either higher quality or on par with traditional media outlets. For users younger than 25, 71 percent put the same or greater level of trust in content.
Older voters are more skeptical of information shared on social media — with 36 percent calling it less reliable than traditional news sources.
In 2012, the Edelman Trust Barometer, a global study, found growing public trust in new communications, noting that while traditional news sources were still the most trusted,
…social media, which consists of social networking sites, content sharing sites, blogs, and microblogging sites, saw the biggest percentage increase (75 percent) in trust among media sources.
Edelman’s 2013 Trust Barometer also reports that people are turning more often to their peers for credible information.
This likely comes as no surprise in statehouses across the country, where every state uses social media in some capacity.
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