Stowe Boyd posted an item responding to the citation of a Telecom Express survey cited by the BBC, but says, “I will continue to contend that more American are finding information on the Internet more credible than conventional media sources. It looks like TV and print journalism are falling dramatically in their credibility.”

Stowe may want to revisit that conclusion.

The Telecom Express item revealed that 66% of the Brits responding cited national television as the most accurate and was trusted as highly as family and friends. “National, regional, and local newspapers were chosen by 63% of respondents, and radio was chosen by 55%. Only 36% of respondents rated websites and 24% rated blogs.”

Stowe notes “It’s unclear what a representative sample of 1000 in the US would say.” But the Telecom Express survey is not the same one I cited, which did include US representation. That survey, called “Trust in Media,” was conducted jointly by the BBC, Reuters, and the Media Center. Its methodology included 1,000 people from the US, in addition to respondents from nine other countries. Even with the U.S. factored in, the results are pretty similar:

National TV was the most trusted news source overall (trusted by 82%, with 16% not trusting it) - followed by national/regional newspapers (75% vs 19%), local newspapers (69% vs 23%), public radio (67% vs 18%), and international satellite TV (56% vs 19%). Internet blogs were the least trusted source (25% vs 23%) ??? with one in two unable to say whether they trusted them.

Stowe, however, refers to a study from the Pew Internet and American Life Project that asserts the Net is becoming the primary source of news and information about science. While I’m not sure how that would help a company making an announcement about a recall of dog food, let’s move on.

The word to pay attention to in Stowe’s note is “becoming,” since even Pew notes the Net is second “only to television” for news and information about science.

But Stowe cites another report, this one from The Pew Research Center For The People And The Press. In this instance, he says “media credibility in general is dropping.” I agree with this, but dropping is a far cry from “dropped,” which means it cannot (yet) be ignored. This Pew report does not provide comparisons to online sources, yet still is enough for Stowe to believe that “more American are finding information on the Internet more credible than conventional media sources.”

This report, Stowe notes, cites an increase in the use of the Internet. What Stowe doesn’t mention is where online these folks are going. The study notes that the primary online sources of news are:

• AOL or Yahoo! News (the highest ranked and populated heavily with press releases)
• Network TV news websites
• Local TV/paper websites
• National newspapers websites
• Online magazine/opinion sites (the lowest ranked)

In each of these cases except the last, the source of the news and information would be the same for the Net as it would be for the print publication or TV station: traditional, mainstream media. Only the delivery mechanism is different.

Again, Stowe and I agree more than we disagree. Trust in mainstream media is declining…and with good reason. But there is more research than the Telecom Express and BBC/Reuters/Media Center studies to support the notion that most people still rely primarily on mainstream media. I’ll cite two:

• The recently released Edelman Trust Barometer found “Traditional media sources such as newspapers, TV, and radio remain more credible than new media sources such as a company???s own Web site and blogs.” This was the result of a survey conducted by StrategyOne with respondents in 18 countries, with the US representing more respondents than any other.
• Lexis-Nexis conducted a study that that also confirms most trust resides in mainstream sources: “LexisNexis asked consumers which news sources they are more likely to trust for information about the news that interests them the most. On average, consumers are four to six times more likely to feel that traditional media is more trustworthy than emerging news sources for news they feel is most interesting.”

Even the Pew Research Center for The People and the Press—the study Stowe cited—notes:

Americans’ news habits have changed little over the past two years. Network and local TV news viewership has been largely stable since 2002. Daily newspaper readership remains at 42% (it was 41% two years ago). And the percentage of Americans who listen to news on the radio on a typical day is virtually unchanged since the last Pew Research Center media consumption survey (40% now, 41% in 2002).

The Net has increased, as Stowe points out (from 22% in 2002 to 25% today) and cable is declining. But national and local news is holding steady, as are newspapers and radio.

There are even studies that carry this conclusion to demograhically-defined groups. Take The Parenting Group’s 24/7 MomConnection study, which concludes, “Newspapers and magazines are moms’ most trusted sources of information, followed by web sites, radio, TV and doctors’ offices.” In terms of media moms consume,

100% of moms have watched TV, been online, listened to the radio or received a direct mail promotion; 91% of moms shopped at a retail store; 88% of moms have read a magazine; and 86% have used a cell phone. And, moms are using emerging media, but not on a regular basis - in a typical week, only 33% have watched video-on-demand, 32% have read a blog, and 17% have listened to an iPod.

There are a lot of companies out there—perhaps not Sun Microsystems, but nevertheless—who need to reach moms.

Finally, since everyone is likely to agree that citing statistics is a dicey proposition, it’s worth pointing out that there is even research to suggest trust in news delivered on the Net is declining. This comes from the “State of the News Media 2006”:

Yet for all its obvious advantages, access and interactivity may also be part of the Internet???s Achilles heel as an information source. Last year we reported that even as the Web was becoming a ubiquitous and accepted news source, there was evidence that trust in the Internet was declining.

And new survey research shows that the trend continues. In 2004, the Center for the Digital Future at the USC Annenberg School found that the proportion of users who believed that most or all of the information on the Internet is reliable and accurate had declined for the third consecutive year, to just 49% ??? a steep decline from 58% in 2001.

News Web sites are as trusted as traditional news media, according to the data. A majority (68%) of those who go online say they believe ???almost all??? or ???most??? of the content on their primary online news site, according to survey research done by Consumer Reports. That level of trust is about equal to those who trust newspapers and television news.

So what does all this mean? At one level, Stowe and I agree that the Net is becoming a more important resource for news. What that means to organizations communicating those things they need to communicate, though, will probably continue to be a source of disagreement. I still believe professional communicators need to use the channels that are most credible. That is not the web alone…or even, to date, primarily. It also means that “the conversation”—vital and critical as it is—is not the be-all and end-all of communication today, and the idea of formal, institutional communication occurring by “just blogging” (Stowe’s original assertion) continues to strike me as just as preposterous as it did when this whole kerfuffle began.

You don’t have to like it. (You can imagine how thrilled I would be if I could counsel all my clients to conduct all their communication through conversation-based channels!) But you do have to accept it.