Opinion poll

What Austrians expect from the media

More than half of those surveyed inform themselves about the current news situation in the media several times a day.

(Bild: aerogondo - stock.adobe.com)

Only half of the Austrian population trusts the news media to report correctly and fairly on domestic politics. Trust is highest in the area of sport. The level of expectations of the media is high, while trust in journalists has risen slightly.

A strong inhibitor of trust is the fear of many survey participants that news media are dependent on politics, advertisers and lobby groups.

Trust in accurate, fair and objective reporting is highest in the area of sport (79% very or fairly high). Regional (74%) and cultural reporting (72%) also scored well. However, only just over half of respondents (56%) believe that climate and the environment are also reported correctly. News confidence is only lower when it comes to consumer rights (55%) and domestic politics (51%).

This is according to data* presented on Monday by the Gallup Institute and Medienhaus Wien. Respondents with an affinity to the FPÖ were particularly skeptical. Only a quarter of this group trust domestic political reporting very much or somewhat. For all other affinities for parliamentary parties, the trust of the survey participants is over 70 percent.

Trust in independence is a major obstacle
Only 33% strongly or somewhat agree that public media such as ORF act independently of the interests of political parties. With regard to private media, 44% agree with this.

Media "very important" for democracy
Overall, an overwhelming majority of survey participants consider independent and critical news media to be "very important" (77%) or "somewhat important" (18%) for democracy. However, only 58% of respondents also believe that Austria's news media make a very important (19%) or somewhat important (39%) contribution to democracy.

Respondents consider it particularly important for a news medium to be credible (95% very or somewhat important) and to report neutrally or objectively (93%).

Half of respondents inform themselves daily in the media
In terms of news usage and frequency, around half of respondents inform themselves about current events in the media several times a day. A further quarter do so once a day. Nine percent of respondents stated that they do not read, listen to or watch the news very often. A further 15 percent said that they "frequently" avoid the news and 50 percent "occasionally". The reasons given by the respondents included the abundance of negative news, which would affect their mental well-being. 

Especially convinced voters - that is 60 percent of those surveyed - check the news several times a day (61 percent), while convinced non-voters - that is seven percent - do so far less frequently (15 percent). 

68% have confidence in journalists
Attitudes towards journalists have changed somewhat for the better. In June 2023, 62% of respondents had a very positive or somewhat positive view of them, compared to 68% in November 2023.

*The study is representative of the web-active Austrian population aged 16 and over. It was conducted in November 2023 and 1000 people were surveyed. A further survey wave with 1000 participants took place in June 2023.