How Trustworthy are Brazilian News Outlets?
SBT News leads Brazilian trust scores, but local newspapers surprisingly outrank TV and internet outlets.
As Brazil approaches its next presidential elections on October 2, many institutions are preparing for a contested, potential defeat of current President Bolsonaro. With rampant misinformation spreading online in a country that has become "addicted to the internet," traditional media's role and its ability to fact-check are increasingly important.
According to a recent report by the Reuters Institute, SBT News is the Brazilian outlet with the highest levels of trust among those that were included in the questionnaire. The network was founded in 1981 by businessman and TV personality Silvio Santos, who remains its owner. It has the third-largest television complex in LatAm, smaller only than the studios of TV Azteca, in Mexico, and its main national competitor, Globo.
Something else we learned in the report is that local newspapers have a higher trust rate than many television, radio, and internet news outlets. You can check out all the data from the Reuters Institute report here and their methodology for calculating their scores here.