The survey, conducted late last year, shows that journalists are trusted by 24.9% of the general population and by 19.3% of young people, placing in "the golden middle" among 16 professions covered by the survey.
Above journalists are priests, who are trusted by 29.6% of the total of 1,009 respondents and distrusted by as many as 45.4%. Journalists are distrusted by an unexpectedly high 34.8% of those interviewed.
The general population has the greatest confidence in nurses (82.1%), ahead of doctors, scientists, soldiers, teachers, police officers and priests. The middle of the ranking is occupied by journalists and public service employees, who are trusted by 18.5% of respondents, while the lower half of the ranking features marketing and PR professionals, business people, lawyers, judges, bankers, as well as cabinet ministers, who are trusted by only 7.4% of respondents.
Placed at the bottom of the ranking are "politicians in general", who are trusted by 6% of those polled. At the same time, cabinet ministers are distrusted by 71.8% and politicians by as many as 74.8% of respondents.
Confidence in journalists as a profession is closely tied to confidence in politicians, and people who do not trust politicians do not trust journalists either. Journalists are looked upon as being part of the same media/political elite. People do not think that the media are credible and free or that the news they disseminate is true, the project coordinator Tena Perišin said.
At the time of the coronavirus outbreak last year, the general population (60.3%) watched television to follow news about social and political developments, ahead of news websites (48%), social networks (34%) and radio (33%). On the other hand, young people mostly followed news on news websites (52.5%), social networks (50.1%) and television (27.1%).
As for confidence in the media, the general population believes that the largest amount of news misrepresenting the reality was published by social networks (27%), news websites (24%), the public broadcaster HRT (16%), commercial television channels (12%), newspapers and radio.
The survey also found that news reports are sometimes shunned because they stir up arguments and tension in society or because they deal with irrelevant matters or matters that respondents are not interested in.
Jourlab's associate Petra Kovačević says that such views are mostly expressed by young people, which shows that the Croatian media satisfy the interests of the older population while not knowing how to reach younger generations.
Project member Stela Lechpammer says that 47% of those interviewed are of the view that violence in the media should be restricted by law, as many as 62% would penalise hate speech in the media, and 59% believe that the state must protect children and young people against violence.
A section of the survey dealt with media reporting on the coronavirus epidemic. It found that about 60% of respondents think that by presenting different information the media caused confusion in the public and 44% believe that the media exaggerated in their descriptions of the crisis.
Evaluating the state of journalism in Croatia, as many as 60.4% of respondents said that each journalist and editor should have a licence to do their job and 72.5% are of the view that they should comply with the code of ethics in their work.