Only one in three people said he trusted the media in general – a slight drop from last year.
Photo: Supplied / Stuff / NZ Herald / Newsroom / Odt / TVNZ
Confidence in the media seems to be stabilizing after five years of sharp decline.
The Trust In News in Aotearoa New Zealand report is carried out annually by the University of Technology Journalism, Media and Democracy Research Center at Auckland University.
Only one in three people said he trusted the media in general – a slight drop from last year.
But when asked about individual news brands, they all showed an increase.
In 2025, RNZ was perceived as the most reliable news brand, Otago Daily Times was ranked second and TVNZ and NBR received the third higher confidence scores.
The last report, which researched just over a thousand adults in mid -February, said 45 % of people now trust the news they choose to consume – unchanged from last year.
Co-author, Dr. Greg Treadwell, said the media had done a good job changing things since the pandemic, when “half truths and naked face lies” spread through journalists and news organizations.
RNZ’s chief executive and editor-in-chief Paul Thompson said recognition as the country’s most reliable news mark is an important achievement, but it didn’t happen by chance.
“[It] Instead, it reflects RNZ’s strategic focus to improve trust through initiatives that reinforce our role of serving the public, providing reliable and reliable information to all New Zealandes.
“Among a series of initiatives, we appointed a quality director and editorial training, committed to publishing a review of one aspect of our editorial policy each year and established a new board committee focused on policy and editorial quality.”
Trusting work has just begun, he added.
“During next year, we plan to go further in the way we explain our processes to the public, invest in journalism and continue to increase our sharing and collaboration of content to help what we achieve more New Zealand than ever. So we will also publish our own research that seems more closely on what drives people’s confidence in the media.”
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