Here is a quick look at the latest results of Edelman's annual Trust Barometer. It surveys 3,100 "opinion-elites" in 18 countries (400 Americans.)

American's trust in mainstream media jumps an astonishing 36 per cent to 45 per cent from 33 percent in the prior year.

And business magazines came out on top – with 60% of the American respondents are most likely to turn to business magazines as a source of information about a company or business – vs. just 11% for blogs.

Generation gap defined...

Younger Americans (25 to 34 year olds) were "significantly" more likely to consider the following sources of information to be credible, compared with older Americans: Wikipedia, communications issued by companies, company Web sites, TV talk shows, blogs, social networking sites, and video-sharing sites

Fewer Americans under 35 (50%) are getting information about companies from newspapers than in any other country surveyed.

I'll have the full study very soon with more details...


Edelman is the world's largest private public relations company. Here is CEO Richard Edelman with some more findings:

Here is Richard Edelman's blog 6AM:

...as we seem to be heading toward recession, the goal for business should be to maintain their license to operate. This depends on banking trust capital by running a good business, taking on large societal issues in the context of profit making opportunities and presenting the business case in a transparent and convincing manner.

Technorati Tags: edelman, trustbarometer