Every day we are bombarded with news, information, tabloid sensations, advertisements and reports from a host of sources. But how much should we believe and what sources can we really trust? As you can see from the following table, which is based on research conducted by Globescan in 2009, it is national television and national newspapers that appear to be the most trustworthy and valid sources of information. Of course since the research was commissioned by the UK’s national TV channel, the BBC, the results might not be too much of a surprise!

Generally, the most trusted information and news sources are those, which have a long tradition and are already well established in society in terms of reputation, history and institutional reform.  An interesting source in the above table is the “friends, family and colleagues” channel for information, which proves that authenticity is also an essential attribute to verify the quality of the source. In contrast, the current most rapidly growing media are online sources as they provide a whole spectrum of information in the shortest amount of time. However, in line with the table above, since their legitimacy and accuracy are often questioned there is a strong need to establish more credible online sources. Due to the enormous dimension of articles and data available online it is challenging to determine when the information on news websites and internet blogs is certified and reliable, especially when much of the websites have a rather short history and no established reputation. Although the table indicates that blogs are the least trusted sources, you don’t have to worry as in our case the Action blog is definitely based only on the most authentic, confirmed, interesting, and cool fun facts.