A new report on Kentucky’s civic health shows an all-time low level of trust in the news media among Kentuckians, a sign that one of the report’s authors finds troubling.

“We’re in the midst of what seems to be an unprecedented grappling with the importance of facts,” said Eric Bain-Selbo, a department head at Western Kentucky University, who co-authored the report.

The 2016 Civic Health Index, which Kentucky Secretary of State Alison Lundergan Grimes released, tracks how connected Kentuckians feel to their communities, how much they volunteer and give to charity, voter registration and turnout and confidence in public institutions.

More Kentuckians are volunteering, donating to charity and registering to vote since Grimes’ first report in 2012, according to a news release. But the report also showed that fewer than half of Kentuckians have confidence in the news media, a drop of more than 13 percentage points in three years. The report also showed less trust among neighbors.

To release the 2016 report, the secretary of state’s office partnered with the National Conference on Citizenship and the McConnell Center at the University of Louisville. It also partnered with Western Kentucky University’s Institute for Citizenship and Social Responsibility, which has since become the Center for Citizenship and Social Justice after a reorganization.

Bain-Selbo, head of WKU’s Department of Philosophy and Religion, co-authored the report with Saundra Ardrey, who heads WKU’s political science department, and Tiara Na’puti, a former WKU professor.

Bain-Selbo said Kentuckians are continuing a trend of distrust in the news media that spans the nation. As to possible causes, he pointed to partisan politicians on both sides of the aisle maligning the “mainstream media” and the rise of social media.

“We’ve often gone from criticizing the message to impugning the messenger, and that seems like a really dangerous move we’ve made,” Bain-Selbo said.

When confidence erodes in members of the news media, whom Bain-Selbo describes as overwhelmingly forthright, it leaves a hole in civic life.

“They serve just a critical function in our society,” he said. “When we undermine the news media as an institution that is critical to our democracy, we leave just a tremendous hole in our civic life and there’s nothing to fill that hole except pundits and lobbyists.”

While the report showed most Kentuckians have confidence in public schools and corporations, only 46.5 percent they are a great deal or somewhat confident in the media, compared to 55 percent nationally. That confidence has fallen since 2011, when 60.3 percent of Kentucky residents were somewhat or very confident, closely matching the national average of 62 percent.

In a news release, Grimes called on lawmakers to be a part of the solution.

“The foundation of our democracy and our nation depends on trust in our institutions and in each other,” she said. “This new report shows an alarming years-long decline in Kentuckians’ confidence in news and media, and that corrosive distrust is perpetuated by the unadulterated peddling of fake information. Today, I am asking my fellow constitutional officers and members of the General Assembly to sign a pledge to refuse to traffic in fake and fact-less information, and to help restore their constituents’ trust in our public institutions and each other.”

— Follow education reporter Aaron Mudd on Twitter @BGDN_edbeat or visit bgdailynews.com.