A study posted on Gallup.com ranked 25 US industries according to citizen favorability perceptions, and television and radio fared better than half bad. Not only did broadcasters tie for 10th place, comfortably removed from the #13 tipping point, they were ahead of all of the other entertainment-related entries, including sports, movies and advertising/PR.
The computer industry is the most admired, followed by restaurants and farming/agriculture. At the bottom of the list is real estate, automobile and oil/gas.
Consumers give out their approval fairly stingily. Radio/TV is tied with publishing, with a mere 40% approval rating. In the 2009 survey, only computer beats 60%, with a 62% score, and only four other industries top 50%. Ten industries are below the 33% mark.
Here are the full results:
| Industry | 2007 | 2008 | 2009 |
| Computer | 61 | 60 | 62 |
| Restaurant | 63 | 51 | 57 |
| Farm/agriculture | 51 | 50 | 56 |
| Internet | 54 | 49 | 51 |
| Grocery | 53 | 36 | 51 |
| Retail | 51 | 39 | 44 |
| Education | 47 | 41 | 43 |
| Travel | 42 | 34 | 42 |
| Telephone | 46 | 39 | 41 |
| TV/radio | 43 | 36 | 40 |
| Publishing | 41 | 37 | 40 |
| Sports | 35 | 36 | 39 |
| Movies | 36 | 35 | 38 |
| Healthcare | 28 | 27 | 36 |
| Accounting | 40 | 36 | 34 |
| Airline | 30 | 18 | 32 |
| Advertising/PR | 35 | 27 | 31 |
| Electric/gas utilities | 31 | 27 | 31 |
| Pharmaceutical | 33 | 31 | 31 |
| Federal government | 21 | 18 | 29 |
| Banking | 50 | 36 | 28 |
| Legal | 31 | 26 | 25 |
| Real estate | 34 | 16 | 24 |
| Automobile | 38 | 29 | 24 |
| Oil/gas | 19 | 15 | 21 |
Source: Gallup.com
RBR/TVBR observation: The vast majority of industries took a hit between 2007 and 2008, then bounced back in 2009. The biggest exceptions: Banking and automobile. In fact, over the three years, banking fell from #7 to #21, going 50-36-28. Hmmmm – we wonder how they managed to do that?
