According to the 2009 Pew Research Report, trust in news media has reached a lowest record.
Pew Research Center conducted the national survey and found that 63 percent of respondents said news reporting is inaccurate and only a small portion of them (29%) said that media in general get the facts straight. It marked the worst record compared with 53% in 2007.
Why could it happen? Why has the rating of media trust gradually declined?
What should the media do to improve their job performance?
I believe this is a result of 24 hour news. Now more than ever it is important not only to be the first one to break the news but find constant developments that will keep you ahead of the competition. Pure journalism has taken a back seat to the journalism that requires you to present the here and now. People have become accustomed to instant news. Due to that, the media has to create that instant news and unfortunately the facts, slip through, and inaccurate news can be and is presented, resulting in a distrust in the news and its correspondents.
ReplyDeleteI agree with Wes. The 24 hour news on TV and web have forced news organizations to keep up-to-date with their content. In order to have interesting breaking news the organizations with deliver any content to the masses.
ReplyDeleteI believe a part of people not trusting the news also is that there are so many networks like Fox News, CNN, MSNBC etc, and they all seem to have an agenda depending on who you are talking to. Fox News is historically more conservative and so if someone were of the opposite political spectrum why would they trust Fox News as apposed to MSNBC and vice versa.
ReplyDeleteI have to agree that the urgency to get a news story out seems to have overshadowed the need for accuracy in news reporting. And, since many networks tend to follow a story with "developing" or "breaking" information, they seem to think it's perfectly okay to correct themselves after the initial reporting. In general, I think audiences are a lot smarter than news agencies give credit for, and people are getting tired of being treated as if they are too stupid to catch on.
ReplyDeleteI think credibility is at an all time low because there are no nonpartisan networks...with the extreme misreporting and left/right leaning of certain networks others have been forced to adopt an opposite position to try and counteract what the other stations are putting out. There is no longer any station that simply reports the news here in the U.S. Maybe if we had something close to the BBC people would be more trusting of the news media.
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