Study: DC insiders trust media more

Washington insiders are trusting the media more, though they are sometimes overwhelmed by it, the fifth edition of National Journal’s Washington in the Information Age study found. The study also showed that a broader swath of Washington insiders are using LinkedIn (though Facebook is used more frequently), have nearly completely converted from BlackBerrys to iPhones, and love e-mail newsletters. Conducted via online survey over the course of four weeks among 1,200 Washington insiders, the study included more than 120 Capitol Hill staff, more than 600 respondents from the private sector public affairs community and nearly 400 federal executives.

Respondents to the survey expressed higher levels of trust in individual media sources across the board since the last time the survey was conducted in 2012. Around 81 percent of respondents trust national news brands, such as CNN or the New York Times, an 11 percent increase from 2012. Some 72 percent of respondents trust an "inside-the-Beltway" publication, such as POLITICO or National Journal, a 13 percent increase from 2012. Online-only news sources, such as the Huffington Post and Daily Caller, experienced a 13 percent jump in trustworthiness, up to 23 percent of respondents. More of the insiders, 32 percent, read e-mail newsletters on their mobile devices “as soon as I woke up” than any other type of news consumption. Radio then takes over during the morning commute, before e-mail newsletters and websites, which 74 percent and 72 percent of respondents said they read throughout the workday respectively. Viewing websites on a computer dominated the workday until the evening commute, when radio takes over again, and then TV at night.