According to the Reuters Institute for the Study of Journalism’s Digital News Report 2024, Canadians’ trust in news is 39 per cent. For comparison, Americans’ trust is news is even lower at 32 per cent.

There are many variables at play in the decline of trust, including engagement-driven algorithms that deprioritize hard news — which traditionally provided a common set of facts — in favour of reinforcing one’s point of view rather than informing the reader. The rise of “fake news,” misinformation and disinformation are among other factors in the decline of trust.