Americans Increasingly Trust Family Over Media for News, Report Finds

Americans are increasingly turning to family members rather than traditional media outlets for their news and information, according to the fifth annual Disinformation in Society Report released by the Institute for Public Relations and Leger.

The comprehensive survey reveals that 82% of respondents place “some” or “a lot” of trust in family members as news sources. Following closely, 79% trust “people like me” and 75% trust friends for getting information—significantly outpacing traditional news outlets.

Among formal news sources, local news retains the highest trust level at 64%, while ABC News leads national outlets with a 59% trust rating. Artificial intelligence saw a notable jump in trust, rising from 21% last year to 34% in the current survey.

The findings highlight a fundamental shift in how information flows through society, posing significant challenges for media organizations and communication professionals. Rather than information passing through traditional gatekeepers, it increasingly travels person-to-person in what amounts to a sophisticated game of telephone.

“This represents a fundamental rewiring of how information travels through society,” says Dr. Tina McCorkindale, CEO of the Institute for Public Relations. “We’re seeing a return to pre-mass media information sharing, where trust is built on personal relationships rather than institutional authority.”

The survey’s “people like me” category raises particularly interesting questions about how Americans define their information bubbles. This ambiguous classification could encompass geographic communities, shared identities, political beliefs, or social media connections. The report suggests that increasingly, “people like me” correlates strongly with shared political ideology.

This political polarization becomes evident in the stark trust gap between Democrats and Republicans regarding mainstream media. CNN and Fox News show the widest partisan divides, while the Financial Times has the narrowest gap at 13 percentage points between liberal and conservative viewers.

Local media emerges as a rare bright spot, earning at least 50% trust from both political parties—74% from Democrats and 59% from Republicans. This makes local outlets potentially valuable channels for reaching across political divides, though their continued contraction presents practical challenges for communicators.

The report also shows growing concern about disinformation, with 70% of Americans considering it a major issue—a 10-point increase from last year. Half of respondents report encountering misinformation daily.

Americans distribute blame for this problem widely. Social media platforms bear the brunt, with Facebook (82%), X (formerly Twitter) at 79%, and TikTok (75%) seen as most responsible. The federal government (74%), journalists (72%), and foreign governments (71%) follow closely.

Public relations professionals don’t escape scrutiny, with 61% of Americans assigning them at least some blame for misinformation. However, this figure falls significantly below other institutional sources.

Notably, respondents largely absolved those closest to them. Only 12% considered family members “very responsible” for spreading disinformation, while just 10% said the same about friends, employers, or “people like me.”

This trust gap between personal connections and institutions creates both challenges and opportunities for communication professionals. With institutional trust eroding, person-to-person influence becomes increasingly important for message dissemination.

“We’re entering an era where the most effective communications strategies may involve mobilizing individual advocates rather than relying solely on institutional messaging,” notes communication strategist Mark Harris. “The messenger has become as important as the message.”

For organizations seeking to build public trust, the findings suggest that leveraging authentic individual voices and local media may prove more effective than traditional top-down communication approaches in today’s fragmented information landscape.