SOFIA (Bulgaria), June 22 (SeeNews) – Some 61% of Croatians and Romanians reported having no trust in news overall, a study by the Reuters Institute showed on Thursday.
Only 15% of Croatians believe the media is free from political influence, while 16% trust media is not affected by businesses, the Reuters Institute said in its Digital News Report 2017.
In Romania, 27% think the media is not influenced politically, while 25% believe the media is free from business influence.
Online sources of news are most popular among Croatians and Romanians, followed by TV.
Over half of Croatians and Romanians use social media as a news source, according to the report.
The radio was the least used news source in Croatia, while in Romania printed newspapers were least favoured.
The authors of the report surveyed 70,000 people across 36 markets worldwide.
They found out that only 24% of respondents think social media do a good job in separating fact from fiction, compared to 40% for the news media.
In most countries, a strong connection was established between distrust in the media and perceived political bias.
The report also found that ad-blocking growth has stalled on desktop (21%) and remains low on smartphones (7%).