16 / Myanmar's media from an audience perspective However, the majority of the research participants did not showcase these abilities to interpret the differences in the media they consume. Either because they did not reflect upon the media’s reliability or different media’s political allegiances, or because they did not have the luxury of access to more than a couple of different news sources. But if they cannot see it with their own eyes or hear the incident accounted by an eyewitness then they will need to see other forms of proof. Some do however realize that you cannot trust all images. Especially when it comes to online content. But as pointed out by many research participants it can be difficult for them to verify whether a story or an image is false or not. “Seeing is believing. So, if we cannot go and check by ourselves on the ground, we should check with someone who is living there.” (46-year-old Woman from rural Kachin). “Although I like information or news sourced on Facebook, I do not trust some of them because there can be fake news with fake photos. People fake them and post them on Facebook, so they cannot be trusted. [...] So, we need to think carefully before we believe them.” (25-year-old man from rural Kachin). Looking at trust from a regional perspective, it is again apparent that local news outlets carrying local news have a better position among the local population than the Yangon-based media. People tend to trust media that have a local presence and can report directly from the neighborhood. If they know the journalists covering their local community, trust is even higher. “DVB is good. [...] In Myitkyina, there is a DVB reporter. When he is sick or not available, our news is missing.” (51-year-old woman from rural Kachin). The exercise mentioned above where the focus group participants were asked to sort cards with the names and logos of different news outlets further underlines people’s tendency to place higher trust on local media outlets or media outlets with a – for them – known local presence. As is visible from the table below which lists the media that were most frequently mentioned in each region, media with a known local presence have a clear advantage over media that are not recognized as having a local presence.