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TV, Daily Newspapers Most Trusted Info Sources

Americans consider television and daily newspapers the most credible sources of news and information, while they trust free shoppers and magazines least, according to (pdf) a survey from ARANet , conducted by Opinion Research Corporation.

Survey respondents assigned credibility scores ranging from one for “not at all credible” to 10 for “extremely credible” to seven types of media:

Television was viewed as the most trusted media source, scoring a 6.6 on a one-to-10 credibility scale. Daily newspapers ranked second, earning 6.3 points out of 10. Free shoppers scored 3.5 out of 10.

Radio and weekly community papers ranked in the middle of the pack. Online sources also ranked in the middle, both for credibility and for the percentage of news and information people received from websites each month. Survey respondents gave online media 5.6 out of 10 points on the credibility scale, and said they receive 12.7% of their news and information from online sources.

“As more people go online for news and information, it’s more critical than ever for sites to deliver credible content that gives web users the information they’re looking for,” said ARAnet president Scott Severson.

The credibility scores corresponded with the amount of news and information people say they receive from each media source each month. Consumers reported getting nearly 35% of their news and information from television, and 23.5% from daily newspapers. They reported getting just 1.6% of their monthly news and information from magazines.

About the survey: The national study of 1,005 adults was conducted by Opinion Research Corporation’s CARAVAN Services and sponsored by ARAnet. It was was conducted by phone September 4-7, 2008