Only a third of Greeks trust the news, report finds

Only a third of Greeks trust the news they use themselves, while Greece ranks 36th across 38 countries in overall trust in news, according to a new report that also shows Kathimerini newspaper having the highest brand trust score in the country.

“Decades of corruption, political and business undue influences, and their targeting by left- and right-wing populist parties have resulted in the media being widely distrusted by Greeks,” according to this year’s Digital News Report, a major research project from the Reuters Institute at Oxford University that was based on an online survey of 75,000 people in 38 countries.

The same survey shows Greeks use on average more than five online news sources per week, which is said to be the second highest among 38 markets.

“While this finding reflects plurality in news selection, in the long-tail list of the most visited websites are a number of news websites or blogs that regularly engage in dangerous conspiracy theories,” the report says.

Researchers note that the number of news brands is related to strong dependence among Greeks on social media platforms for news and information, “a behavior that has been linked to incidental exposure to news sources.”

More than two-thirds (67 percent) of Greeks use social media as a source of news, while 20 percent of Greeks online (and 32 percent of those under 35) claim that social media are their key source of news, the report shows.

According to the survey, 58 percent of Greeks use Facebook to share and discuss news. A smaller percentage depend on YouTube (36 percent) and various messaging applications including Messenger (25 percent) and Viber (17 percent).

Only 7 percent pay for online news, the report adds.