data.world Survey Reveals Consumer Attitudes Around Data and Trust in Online News

AUSTIN, Texas, Aug. 02, 2017 -- data.world, where data people work together to solve problems faster, today released the results of Online News & Data Trust Survey. The survey measures trust towards online news organizations and reporting for more than 1,000 U.S. adults who get their news online, and includes breakdowns by age, geography, political viewpoints and more.

“With rising concerns about media bias and fake news, data can provide a single source of truth,” said Brett Hurt, co-founder and CEO of data.world. “This survey shows that giving readers access to foundational data increases trust in online news across the political spectrum. Journalists and news organizations now have a clear path forward to build credibility through transparency and data.”

Key findings include:

• Half of Americans surveyed report little or no trust in the press when it comes to reporting the news fully, accurately and fairly.
   
• Nearly 8 in 10 (78%) would have more trust in an online news article if they could easily access the data behind the claims in the piece.
   
• Sixty-four percent of those who profess no trust at all in the press, and 79% of those with “not very much” trust, say that easy access to data would increase their trust in an article.
   
• While self-identified “liberal” and “very liberal” respondents are most likely to state that access to data would increase trust (87% of both groups), a strong majority of “conservatives” (73%), “very conservatives” (69%), and moderates (73%) feel the same.
   
• The majority of Trump supporters (69%) also stated that data access increases trust in online news articles.
   
• While only 2 in 10 Americans (20%) currently pay for access to any online news source, these paid subscribers are more likely to feel that easy access to data increases trust (83%) than non-subscribers (76%).
   
• Age and gender are not statistically significant factors for increasing trust.

The survey also looked at consumer attitudes towards specific news outlets. Additional findings reveal:

• Consumers cite The New York Times (40%), The Wall Street Journal (33%), and CNN (32%) as the most trusted news outlets.
   
• Access to data matters the least to U.S. adults who view Fox News as a trusted news source, with 25% saying data access has no effect on trust.
   
• Access to data matters the most to those who trust the Washington Post, with only 10% saying data access has no effect on trust.

The survey of 1,021 U.S. online news consumers ages 18 and over was conducted in late April through early May 2017. Full underlying data, including CSV files, visualizations, and detailed methodology is available to all at https://data.world/ddjdemos/survey-how-access-to-data-affects-trust-in-news.

About data.world
data.world strives to build the most meaningful, collaborative, and abundant data re-source in the world. The company eases data discovery, collaboration, and use to help people solve complex journalistic, academic, commercial, and societal problems faster. data.world operates as a public benefit corporation and is headquartered in Austin, Texas. Visit data.world and follow @datadotworld and facebook.com/datadotworld for more information.

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