The vast majority of Americans continue to distrust mass media sources, with perceived reliability of the media reaching the lowest level in decades, according to a survey from Gallup.

The survey of American adults taken in early September asked “how much trust and confidence” they have in the mass media, particularly newspapers, television, and radio, with respect to “reporting the news fully, accurately, and fairly.” Some 36% of respondents said they have “none at all,” exceeding the 33% who said they do not have “very much” trust in mass media and the 31% who said they have a “great deal” or a “fair amount” of trust in mass media.

Gallup said there are more adults who have no trust in the media than those who trust the media for the third consecutive year as media trust reaches the lowest level in five decades.

Democrats were far more likely to say they have a “great deal” or a “fair amount” of trust in the media than independents or Republicans. Some 54% of Democratic respondents expressed faith in the media, while only 27% of independents and 12% of Republicans said the same.

“As has been the case historically, partisans have different levels of confidence in the media to report the news fully, accurately, and fairly,” Gallup observed in their analysis of the results.

Younger respondents were also significantly less likely to trust the media than their older counterparts, a trend that has accelerated over the past decade. Only 26% of respondents under the age of twenty-nine trust the media relative to 43% of those above the age of sixty-five.

Gallup also made clear that younger Democrats trust the media far less than older Democrats. Some 31% of the former cohort trust the media relative to 74% of the latter cohort.

The mass media is the least trusted institution in American civic life, ranking slightly lower than Congress and well below the federal government as a whole in both their domestic and international activities.