Not sure how this would work in practice, though…the words “can” and “worms” come to mind! I’ve posted about this on our blog and we’d love to hear others’ thoughts on it too: http://www.metrica.net/MeasurementMatters/post/2008/09/Trust-in-the-Media—The-end-of-the-world-as-we-know-it.aspx

Not sure how this would work in practice, though…the words “can” and “worms” come to mind! I’ve posted more about this on our blog and we’d love to hear others’ thoughts on it too: http://www.metrica.net/MeasurementMatters/post/2008/09/Trust-in-the-Media—The-end-of-the-world-as-we-know-it.aspx

Thanks for your interest in UKPulse and the debate it has prompted after Roy Greenslade’s post this morning. As Metrica’s Claire O’Sullivan said to Roy, it was likely to prompt some interesting debate, and I think she was right!

I thought it would be useful just to clarify a couple of points about UKPulse. UKPulse is a marketing planning tool that is powered by a massive omnibus survey into all aspects of the lifestyles of the UK population. The research, through UKPulse, is used predominantly by the public relations and advertising industries to create and then interrogate the lifestyles of their key audiences, including, importantly, their media consumption habits. The trust question is just one of many that the survey asks. The specific question asked was:

“I usually trust the following types of media for reliable information…”

and it then lists TV, national newspapers, regional and local newspapers, national radio, local radio, internet news sites, internet review / recommendation sites, blogs and online groups / forums

The questions do not ask whether the population trusts one media type more than another. Rather, the comparative data comes from the same research undertaken in the past.

The question was asked not to provide detailed research into trust levels of different media types, but rather to throw up a broad litmus test to which media people trust broadly. Your question:

“do people trust a well-known newspaper journalist’s blog more than an unknown blogger’s”

is absolutely correct, and is one that we cover ourselves in more detail on Metrica’s blog Measurement Matters. The URL is http://www.metrica.net/measurementmatters where we really hope to welcome you and your readers to join the debate.