Report “News media broadly trusted, views of UK government response to COVID-19 highly polarised”

The report examines people’s attitudes towards how news organisations, government and other institutions are responding to the coronavirus pandemic in the UK based on a survey fielded from 10 April to 14 April 2020.

Among its highlights:

• more than one-third of respondents think that the news media is doing a good job of responding to coronavirus.
• approval for the government response is very polarised
• most people think that the BBC is doing a good job, and that TV outlets like get a higher proportion of positive evaluations than many newspapers
• more people are worried about the threat of coronavirus to the wider society than to their own health or their own finances.
• 39% think that the coronavirus situation in the UK is heading in the right direction, and 10% think the UK is on the wrong track. Just under half (45%) think the picture is mixed.

The report is the first in a series of ten Factsheets included in the UK COVID-19 news and information project that analyses how the British public navigates information and misinformation about coronavirus and about how the government and other institutions are responding to the pandemic.