Reuters: Astro Awani and The Star among most trusted Malaysian news

An annual study of news consumption trends across the world has found that Astro Awani and The Star are the two most trusted Malaysian sources of news.

The Reuters Institute Digital News Report 2018, the seventh edition of an annual series, found that when it comes to trust, Astro Awani and The Star scored 6.05 and 6.03 respectively, with independent news portal Malaysiakini nipping at their heels with a score of 6.02.

“In today’s digital and social media era, news come from a variety of sources, and Star Media Group takes pride in that our team takes the time to verify all sorts of news before we upload or publish it.

“We are aware that people look to us to verify information, and we take this responsibility seriously,” said Star Media Group chief content officer Esther Ng.

Ng added that with fake news becoming a concern all over the world, in December 2016, The Star Online also launched a special section called “True or Not” to verify or debunk viral messages on social media and messaging apps.

However, Malaysian news organisations still lost out to international news aggregator Yahoo! News, which had the highest trust score.

This is for those who have heard of the brands.

For those who use the brand, Astro Awani scored 7.03, followed by Yahoo News at 6.61 and the Borneo Post at 6.59.

“There appears to be greater trust in what are perceived as international media as opposed to local, with Yahoo! News being the most trusted brand,” said Prof. Zaharom Nain of Centre for the Study of Communications and Culture, University of Nottingham Malaysia Campus.

“This has much to do with the structures and patterns of media ownership and control. There are some brands that buck this trend,” he wrote in the report, published by the Reuters Institute for the Study of Journalism.

https://www.thestar.com.my/news/nation/2018/06/27/reuters-report-astro-awani-and-the-star-among-most-trusted-of-malaysian-news-organisations/