If you believe Marvin Gaye’s iconic lyric, “believe half of what you see, some or none of what you hear” then you are in the minority according to latest research from Britain’s Ofcom which has found that more people trust the news if they hear it on the radio rather than see it on television. The report found that 66 per cent believe what they hear, compared to 58 per cent trusting the internet and 54 per cent accepting what they see on the television. Why is this so? What makes one medium more trustworthy than another?

Given that Britain’s radio industry is dominated by the BBC, would such a survey of Australian radio news yield a similar result?

Which leads to the next question; How does the trustworthiness of news on commercial and community radio compare to that on the ABC?