News Media Broadly Trusted as Source of Coronavirus Information, Views of UK Government Response Highly Polarised

Abstract

In this RISJ Factsheet we examine people’s attitudes towards how news organisations, government and other institutions are responding to the coronavirus pandemic in the UK. This is the first in a series of ten factsheets based on an ongoing online panel survey of a representative sample of the UK population, fielded from 10 April to 14 April 2020. We find that: (i) more than one-third (37%) think that the news media is doing a good job of responding to coronavirus, (ii) most people (60%) think that the BBC is doing a good job, and TV outlets like ITV (36%) Channel 4 (32%), and Sky (28%) get a higher proportion of positive evaluations than many newspapers, and (iii) more people are worried about the threat of coronavirus to the wider society (the economy, the health of the population, and life in their community) than to their own health or finances.