3 in 4 Filipinos trust journalists over vloggers, survey shows

MANILA — Filipino adults trust journalists far more than content creators and vloggers as sources of news and information, according to the August 2026 National Momentum Survey released on Oct. 13 by Momentum Research.

About 3 in 4 Filipino adults, or 76.5 percent, say they trust news and information from journalists working in news organizations, while 18.4 percent say they do not.

Only 31.2 percent trust content creators and vloggers as a source of news and information, while 64.1 percent say they “distrust” or “strongly distrust” them.

The gap matters because disinformation has long been rampant on social media, and generative artificial intelligence has made it much easier to mass produce propaganda or misleading narratives, whether in standalone posts or in comment sections, Momentum Research said.

In that information environment, deciding which sources to trust matters more than ever, the research firm added.

The stakes reach public welfare, because people act on what they believe, whether they are weighing candidates ahead of the 2028 national elections, reading official announcements on public services, or deciding whether to heed a storm warning.

Where Filipinos get their news

Filipinos today get their news and information from a wide range of sources.

Momentum Research noted that with social media now part of daily life, journalists are no longer the only source of information, and they now share the same space with vloggers, content creators, and influencers online.

The non-commissioned survey, conducted from Aug. 18 to 23, asked Filipino adults nationwide where they most often get their news, how much they trust journalists, and how much they trust sources outside news organizations.

Nearly two-thirds of Filipino adults, or 64.1 percent, get their news from journalists working for news organizations, Momentum Research found.

Meanwhile, 13.1 percent get their news from vloggers, influencers, or content creators outside news organizations.

About a fifth, or 19.2 percent, say they get their news from both.

In total, 83.3 percent of Filipino adults get their news from journalists, and 32.3 percent get their news from content creators and vloggers.

The shares add up to more than 100 percent because about a fifth of respondents use both kinds of sources.

Figure 1. Source of news. (Momentum Research)

Trust favors journalists by a wide margin

Trust, however, favors journalists by a wide margin.

For journalists, 15.5 percent of Filipino adults strongly trust and 61.0 percent trust their news and information, while 15.5 percent distrust and 2.9 percent strongly distrust them.

Another 3.9 percent are unsure about journalists as a source, and 1.2 percent declined to answer.

For content creators and vloggers outside news organizations, 4.6 percent strongly trust and 26.7 percent trust their news and information, while 57.1 percent distrust and 7.0 percent strongly distrust them.

Another 3.7 percent are unsure about content creators and vloggers as a source, and 0.9 percent declined to answer.

Figure 2. Trust in news sources. (Momentum Research)

For most Filipino adults, journalists are the more trusted source of news, a finding that is consistent across regions, political affiliations, and generations.

Gen Z Filipinos trust journalists most

Net trust, which is the share of Filipino adults who expressed trust minus the share who expressed distrust, is also high among Gen Z (+69.8 percentage points), Millennials (+60.5 percentage points), and Gen X (+55.5 percentage points).

About 84.3 percent of Gen Z respondents say they trust the news they get from journalists, followed by 78.9 percent of Millennials and 74.0 percent of Gen X (See Figure 3).

A slim majority of Baby Boomers and the Silent Generation also say they trust journalists (55.8 percent), while 27.4 percent say they do not trust them as a news source and 16.9 percent are unsure.

Trust in content creators, influencers, and vloggers is relatively the same across generations, ranging from 28 percent to 33 percent, while distrust ranges from 62 percent to 67 percent (See Figure 4).

Figure 3. Trust in news media. (Momentum Research)

Trust in journalists highest among Pro-Opposition

Most Filipino adults also trust the news and information provided by journalists regardless of political affiliation, but trust is highest among those who identify as Pro-Opposition.

Momentum Research defines Pro-Opposition as Filipino adults who align themselves with former Vice President Leni Robredo, Sen. Risa Hontiveros, Sen. Bam Aquino, and their allies.

More than 8 in 10 Pro-Opposition adults say they trust journalists (86.4 percent), followed by 81.1 percent of Independents and 78.9 percent of Pro-Marcos adults (See Figure 3).

Pro-Duterte adults, on the other hand, are more likely to say they distrust journalists, at roughly 1 in 4.

Their trust in journalists, however, remains high at 68.6 percent.

Just as trust in journalists is highest among the Pro-Opposition, their trust in content creators and vloggers is the lowest.

About 7 in 10 say they do not trust news and information from these sources, with only 22.1 percent saying they do (See Figure 4).

Independents are also wary, with 68 percent saying they do not trust the information content creators and vloggers produce, while 28.7 percent do.

Marcos and Duterte supporters, on the other hand, are somewhat more receptive, with more than a third saying they trust news and information from content creators and vloggers.

About 3 in 5 in each group say they do not.

Figure 4. Trust in other sources of news. (Momentum Research)

Trust in journalists highest in Rest of Luzon

As with political affiliation and generation, a majority of Filipino adults in every region trusts journalists.

Trust is highest in the Rest of Luzon at 82.2 percent, where distrust is also lowest at 12.7 percent (See Figure 3).

Trust in journalists is similar in Metro Manila (73.6 percent) and Visayas (74.5 percent), and slightly lower in Mindanao (68.4 percent).

Distrust, meanwhile, is similar in Metro Manila and Mindanao, at about 1 in 4 each, and lower in Visayas at 20.5 percent.

The press release does not provide separate figures for Western Visayas.

When it comes to information produced by content creators and vloggers outside news organizations, distrust is somewhat consistent across regions, from 60.2 percent in Metro Manila to 66.4 percent in Visayas (See Figure 4).

Trust in this source of news is lowest among Filipino adults in Mindanao (26.5 percent) and highest among Metro Manila adults (39.2 percent).

Trust in news under pressure

The Momentum findings come as other studies point to strain between Filipinos and the news.

The Reuters Institute’s Digital News Report 2026 found that Filipinos’ overall trust in news fell to 28 percent, down 10 points from 38 percent in 2025, the largest drop among the 48 countries covered, The Philippine Star reported on June 17.

The global average in that report was 37 percent.

The two studies measure different things and use different methods, so their results are not directly comparable. The Reuters Institute figure reflects trust in news generally, while Momentum Research asked specifically about journalists working for news organizations and about content creators outside them.

The Reuters Institute report also found that 70 percent of respondents cite social media as a news source, with Facebook leading the platforms at 72 percent.

Concern about online falsehoods was already high a year earlier. The Philippine Star reported on June 17, 2025, that 67 percent of Filipinos in the Digital News Report 2025 were concerned about what is real and what is fake online, a record for the Philippines since it was first included in 2020 and up from 63 percent in 2024.

In that report, 48 percent named online influencers among the biggest sources of false or misleading information, compared with 37 percent who named journalists.

Political actors topped that list at 55 percent.

About the survey

Conducted from Aug. 18 to 23, the National Momentum Survey was carried out through face-to-face interviews with a nationally representative sample of 1,487 Filipino adults.

It has a national margin of error of plus or minus 2.5 percentage points at a 95 percent confidence level.

Subnational margins of error are plus or minus 6.9 percentage points for the National Capital Region, 3.8 percentage points for the Rest of Luzon (North, South, and Central Luzon), 5.8 percentage points for Visayas, and 5.5 percentage points for Mindanao, all at a 95 percent confidence level.

Margins of error are larger for disaggregated estimates, particularly for groups with smaller sample sizes.

The generational subgroups had 314 respondents for Gen Z, 411 for Millennials, 429 for Gen X, and 283 for Baby Boomers and the Silent Generation, according to the release’s data tables.

The National Momentum Survey is Momentum Research’s flagship initiative, a non-commissioned survey that captures Filipino public opinion on the country’s most pressing sociopolitical issues.

The August 2026 issue also covers perspectives, attitudes, and behaviors on government performance, the impeachment trial, 2028 national elections voting intentions, and national issues such as Pax Silica, systems loss, minimum wage, the Barangay and Sangguniang Kabataan Elections, and school-related violence.

Momentum Research describes itself as a next-generation, nonpartisan public opinion research firm committed to understanding what Filipinos think, feel, and stand for.

The firm says it equips leaders in the public and private sectors with decision-ready data and insights on the attitudes and trends shaping Philippine politics and society.

The complete survey results are available on the firm’s public dashboard at momentumresearch.ph.