MEMBER RESEARCH

RNZ publishes audience research on trust

1 May 2025
RNZ conducted a trust-focused survey to track performance against its Charter, revealing an increase in public trust while also exploring deeper insights into the factors influencing trust in media.
RNZ
Wellington New Zealand - February 9 2020: Sign on building of Radio New Zealand, which is the main public broadcaster in radio, providing commercial-free radio. Credit: Jon lyall/Shutterstock

This report was originally published by Radio New Zealand. 

Trust research

What we did

Every year RNZ’s Value Indices survey tracks our performance against the RNZ Charter and our strategy. As part of this work, we ask a question on trust.

Last year our trust metric improved five points to 49% of respondents agreeing that RNZ is an organisation you can trust, with those disagreeing reducing three points to 28%. The remainder were either neutral (16%) or didn’t know (7%).

As well as asking this broad question on trust, last year we took the opportunity to ask a series of other questions in relation to trust to deepen our understanding of the issue.

Why we did it

As a publicly funded media organisation we are aware of how we are trusted by many New Zealanders for their diet of news and information. While RNZ is the most trusted media outlet in New Zealand (AUT’s Trust in News in Aotearoa New Zealand 2025 report) and we enjoy a trust level above the international average, trust in media generally has declined both globally and in New Zealand. We believe all media organisations, but especially public media organisations, have a role to play in understanding the causes of the decline in trust in media and should take action to reverse this where we can.

What we found

Below are two of the main questions we asked in relation to trust.

The answers are represented as a treemap chart – this provides the percentage of responses relative to each other, much like a pie chart. The colours of each box reflect groups of themes with yellow relating to the tone and treatment of content, red relating to the truthful veracity of content, green relating to other aspects of content and blue relating to enduring qualities of content providers.

Respondents felt that ‘trust in media is broken’ due to fake news, misinformation, opinion, bias, AI, social media, algorithms, clickbait and sensationalism, and government and business agendas.

More on public media and trust

What do you feel is going on with trust in media worldwide?
Block of colours
RNZ trust research chart. Credit: RNZ

They felt that the most important qualities to help them trust RNZ include:

  • Objectivity and Impartiality – “No bias, facts.” “Neutral journalism.”
  • Accuracy and Reliability – “Correct information.” “Accuracy in reporting without twisting things.
  • Transparency and Openness – “Transparency and integrity within their business.”
  • Quality and Reputation – “Sticks to high standards.”
  • Takes care with reporting – “Is relevant and relatable.”  “Responds to feedback”, “Verifies facts.
  • Presentation/Delivery “Presents more than one perspective”, “Represents people from my community fairly.”
What do you feel is RNZ’s role in relation to trust?
Blocks of colour
RNZ Trust research graph. Credit: RNZ
How we’ve interpreted the results
  • We need to be explicit about our journalistic promise.
  • Process is important.
  • Standards, and transparency with audiences about those standards, matter.
  • We need also to be clear with RNZ staff about their role in maintaining and increasing trust.
Trust initiatives in action – what we’ve done so far
  • All 22 recommendations of the Independent External Review of RNZ Editorial Processes have been implemented. This includes appointing a Director of Editorial Quality and Training – Jane Patterson.
  • RNZ has introduced a new board sub-committee focused on editorial policy and quality, ensuring the deeper focus on our editorial standards continues.
  • The complaints and feedback section of RNZ’s website has been revamped and now includes a public tracker of significant corrections or clarifications to stories.
  •  RNZ has committed to completing at least one proactive review of an aspect of its editorial policy each year and making the findings public. The first review was recently published.
  • We’ve published RNZ’s AI principles to make clear where we stand on this emerging technology and the processes we have in place to ensure we uphold trust and are acting in a way that is consistent with RNZ’s Charter.
  •  RNZ has joined Project Origin an initiative between news organisation such as the BBC and New York Times and Microsoft to develop a media provenance tracking process that will authenticate legitimate news stories.
What’s next
  • Shortly we are introducing biographies for all RNZ writers. This allows our audience to learn more about the name on the byline and understand what stories our journalists cover and why.
  • We are also introducing story summaries on digital stories.
  • You can expect to see more of RNZ in its role as a lifeline utility, including providing a range of information about emergencies and how to prepare.
  • And we have committed as a public media organisation to doing more about explaining our editorial processes and how they are applied. Watch out for written pieces and videos that will effectively take you inside the newsroom.
  • Funding scholarships for journalism students as part of our 100th anniversary.
  • Working on how we can expand our sharing of content and investment in regional journalism.
  • Looking ahead RNZ is planning further research with audiences to develop a model of trust that will enable RNZ to monitor factors that drive trust, and prioritise initiatives to improve trust.
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