SEOUL– Yonhap News Agency has been ranked as the most trusted news outlet among South Korean journalists, a survey showed Wednesday.
The survey conducted on 1,000 members of the Journalists Association of Korea from July 27 to Aug. 2 found that Yonhap topped the list of most credible news media companies, garnering 10.5 percent of support.
The runner-up was the conservative Chosun Ilbo daily with 8.8 percent of support, followed by two mainstream broadcasters — KBS (7.9 percent) and SBS (5.6 percent) — Kyunghyang Shinmun (5.5 percent) and Hankyoreh (5.2 percent), both progressive dailies.
More than 18 percent of the respondents, however, said they either do not have or are not aware of the most trustworthy news provider, suggesting a high rate of media distrust among local journalists. The number was, however, lower than that of last year when it came to 24.8 percent, according to the survey.
The survey also showed a plurality of the polled journalists, at 29.4 percent, picked Chosun Ilbo as the most influential news brand. Yonhap ranked No. 3 with 12.4 percent, closely following KBS with 14.4 percent.
Internet portals as a whole received a surprise pick as the fourth most influential news outlet with 5.1 percent of support. A total of 2.2 percent threw their support behind global streaming platform YouTube, putting it as the seventh most trusted news outlet among journalists.
Portals, like Naver and Daum, currently account for the lion’s share in South Korea’s search engine market and, with their own news services, have emerged as powerful rivals to traditional news providers here.
Chosun Ilbo, meanwhile, was also named the most distrusted news brand with 36.7 percent of support, followed by broadcaster MBC at 13.5 percent, Hankyoreh (6.8 percent) and cable news channel TV Chosun (3.4 percent).
The survey has a margin of error of plus or minus 2.94 percentage points and a 95 percent confidence level.
Source: Yonhap News Agency