Survey lists Top 3 news sources, most trusted

An online survey the Northern Marianas Humanities Council held in October to November last year on news consumption and the perceived trustworthiness of mass media in the CNMI showed that the top three most used news sources are Saipan Tribune, Marianas Variety, and KSPN Channel 2. The most trustworthy? KSPN. Among social media behemoths, the most trusted source of CNMI news is YouTube.

This was learned last Friday, July 9, during the first of four webinars that NMHC is hosting on the topic of news use and perceptions in the CNMI. Dubbed the “Minagåhet – Ellet Series” NMHC hopes to provide the community with more insight on how news is consumed in the CNMI. Together with Thomas Manglona II, University of Guam associate professor of journalism Dr. Francis Dalisay kicked off the series with Dalisay presenting findings from the NMHC survey and Manglona doing a presentation on regional news coverage.

Dalisay cautioned, though that the online NMHC survey results are only representative of those who completed the survey. This means that the survey’s results can not be used in predictions or statements about the general public’s news consumption or perceived trustworthiness of CNMI news sources.

Dalisay said that NMHC received 481 completed surveys, with 93% of respondents living on Saipan and around 6% said that they were from Tinian or Rota. Around two-thirds of respondents were women and almost half of all respondents were Chamorro. Some limitations of the study included the underrepresentation of males and Filipinos.

When asked which media source was most used by the respondents, this was measured in the survey with a scale from 1 to 5, with 1 being “never,” 3 being “sometimes,” and 5 being “all the time.” The respondents’ top three most used news sources were Saipan Tribune (average score of 3.9), Marianas Variety (3.85), and KSPN Channel 2 (2.89).

To find the three media sources that the respondents perceived as most trustworthy, respondents were asked to score sources on a scale from 1 to 5, with 1 being “very untrustworthy,” 3 being “neither untrustworthy or trustworthy” and 5 being “very trustworthy.” The respondents’ three most trustworthy sources were KSPN (average score of 3.87), Saipan Tribune (3.82), and Marianas Variety (3.71).

Dalisay noted that from first down to the 10th media source, there were very marginal differences in score, and all sources that were included in the survey had an average score at least above 3.

Other notable survey results that Dalisay shared was which social media was most used and most trusted by respondents in regards to getting CNMI news. According to the respondents, the most used social media for news was Facebook, and the most trustworthy source for CNMI news according to the respondents was YouTube.

Dalisay said the survey’s results were in line with what would be expected if a similar study was conducted anywhere in the U.S. “For the most part, the respondents viewed these media [sources] as trustworthy. They do have some level of trust [in] local media, which is consistent with what goes on in the mainland and elsewhere in the U.S. Residents tend to trust their local news more so than national news,” said Dalisay.

The second webinar in NMHC’s “Minagåhet – Ellet Series” will be held over Zoom on July 16, starting at 11:30am. The upcoming webinar will welcome Dr. Francis Dalisay and Catherine Perry as guests, with the two talking about motivation for news consumption, media skepticism, and news media literacy. The community is welcome to attend, and can register for the event at www.nmhcouncil.org/ellet2.