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

Year of production: 2020

Image is illustrative. Photo by Nathana Rebouças on Unsplash

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.

Authors

Reuters Institute

University of Oxford

Photo of Richard Fletcher
Richard Fletcher

Richard Fletcher is a Senior Research Fellow at the Reuters Institute for the Study of Journalism and leads the Institute’s research team.

Photo of Antonis Kalogeropoulos
Antonis Kalogeropoulos

Antonis Kalogeropoulos is a Lecturer in Communication and Media at the University of Liverpool and a Research Associate of the Reuters Institute for the Study of Journalism.

Photo of Rasmus Kleis Nielsen
Rasmus Kleis Nielsen

Rasmus Kleis Nielsen is the Director of the Reuters Institute for the Study of Journalism and Professor of Political Communication at the University of Oxford.