Unlike Europe, Bulgarians Believes mostly Television and least the Print Press

Bulgarians believe mostly what is being said on television and at least the print media, unlike other European peoples, who are skeptical mostly to social networks. This shows a year-by-year study of the European Union of Electronic Media, which collected data from 33 countries in Europe, reports Dnevnik. 

Bulgarians put their trust in television compared to radio and the Internet. Almost all other European countries have the highest confidence in the radio. Exceptions are made by Turkey, Northern Macedonia, Albania and Montenegro, who also prefer television, as well as Greece, Hungary and Serbia, which rely mostly on the Internet.

Bulgaria is the only country in the EU that is most skeptical of the print media than social networks and television. The same opinion is in Northern Macedonia and Serbia. Everyone else (without Greece) believes at least to social networks, while Athens - to television.

A total of 59% of Europeans say they believe the news on the radio (45% in Bulgaria), 50% on television (56% in Bulgaria) and 19% on social networking information. So the radio keeps its authoritative position, which it maintains since 2013. For this time, the difference is that the trust in the print media is rising, while the Internet and social networks fall sharply.

The report is based on an annual Eurocommunity opinion poll and the Reuters Digital News, Eurobarometer, the Net Trust Index.

Bulgaria is one of the countries where public service media are first in authority, together with Portugal and the countries of Central and Northern Europe. Public service media are among the top 5 in trust across Europe. Only Poland, Hungary, Spain, Turkey and Greece are exceptions. The authors of the study also found a positive correlation between trust in public media and the satisfaction of democracy.

Not surprisingly, the Scandinavian countries also record best benchmarks against other criteria - low political pressures on public media and confidence in news for the state. Bulgaria is among the countries with "moderate" political pressures.