Poll results: Belarusians express high level of confidence in state media for last 4 years

Belarusians have been expressing a high level of confidence in the state mass media for the last four years. Aleksandr Postalovsky, Deputy Director for Scientific Work at the Institute of Sociology of the National Academy of Sciences of Belarus, told about it at the press conference, BelTA informs.

The Institute of Sociology of the National Academy of Sciences is engaged in a research project, which is being implemented on behalf of the Ministry of Information. It is devoted to the study of credibility factors in the state mass media in terms of media space transformation. "Trust in the media is, first of all, the conviction of information consumers in the reliability of content, which influences consciousness and behavioral attitudes. That is, the structural elements of trust are social approval, frequency of reference to this information content. If a person trusts, say, some socio-political program or information, he will periodically return to watching this program, - said Aleksandr Postalovsky. - An important element of trust is demand. That is, if the information content is trusted, it is in demand among the audience."

The project has been underway since 2021 and, according to the deputy director, it is fundamental. For it, a large questionnaire was developed with questions on the demand for television, print media, radio broadcasting, social media, video hosting and a separate block with questions on trust in the media. "We have a sample size of 1.3 thousand respondents. This is a republican representative sample. It includes large cities, the capital, medium-sized towns and rural areas. That is, it is a micro-model of our society, so that this sample represents the opinion of the entire population," explained Aleksandr Postalovsky.

According to the Institute's survey last fall, during the last four years (2021-2024) the population of Belarus expresses a high level of trust in the state media - 60% of respondents. The sociologist pointed out that in 2021, this figure amounted to 38.4%, which indicates a progressive and constructive growth of trust in the state media. Aleksandr Postalovsky emphasized that this is, in particular, the merit of the media themselves and their active work. "Our Belarusian domestic information agenda is formed by the state media, and it resonates with the audience. While foreign media do not enjoy the trust of our audience, in our information field," he said.

Also, 62.6% will turn to the state media to check the reliability of the current information event. That is, the absolute majority of people trust and will turn to the state information content when studying the issue of political aspects.

As a matter of fact, the majority of Belarusians surveyed (57%) choose television as the main source of information. Trust in this type of media is also growing year by year.

Internet media in the social survey were segmented taking into account that there are many types of such sources of information (social networks, websites, portals, video hosting, etc.). Aleksandr Postalovsky drew attention to the fact that the survey involved respondents, including those without higher education, living in rural areas, so they may not be aware of all these sources. "According to the survey, about 50% of respondents absolutely trust socio-political information published in the Belarusian segment of the Internet. There is a tendency of increase," he noted.

There is also a tendency to increase trust in the print segment of the information field - 71.5% of respondents trust newspapers.