More Americans trust Tech and Social Media over Traditional Media

Jun 25, 2010 by Dan Taylor    2 Comments    Posted under: Social Media

In a recent poll conducted by Zogby International Americans were asked to rate the news sources that they trusted most. At the very bottom of the list? Traditional Media.

Traditional Media scored lower than social media including Facebook and Twitter. Almost half of the 2,100 adults surveyed indicated that they trusted big tech firms such as Google, Apple, and Microsoft, 13 percent said they trust Facebook. Twitter scored an 8 percent on the trust scale, tying it with the same trust level American adults place in traditional media. Of the young adults surveyed (18-29), only 6 percent indicated that traditional media was their choice for trust.

John Zogby, President and CEO of Zogby International said that companies like Facebook and Twitter have not had the time to build a brand identity. I might argue that point. However, Google and Apple garner more of Americans’ trust as they’ve been around longer and have had the opportunity to build a brand and position themselves in the market.

Looking further into the Zogby survey with find that young adults have higher levels of trust in Facebook and Twitter with 20 percent and 15 percent, respectively.

When asked in a telephone interview with Reuters, Zogby commented that online privacy was tantamount to users, “I think to a great degree, its all about privacy.” And therein lies the irony. As more and more Americans begin to put more trust in Tech than Traditional Media, does the average consumer really know just what/where/and by whom their personal data is being displayed/read by?

Google has taken some heat as of late due to their Street View cars that collected private information on unencrypted WiFi networks while snapping pics for the online mapping software. WEP wha?

Likewise, young adult number one pick Facebook has recently changed their privacy policy do to a backlash from users and privacy watchdog groups when the Palo Alto firm decided to start releasing users’ data to ‘selected’ partners to ‘enrich’ the end users’ viewing (read:shopping) experience.

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