Trust in News Journalism: a PRESSing issue
With more importance that ever placed on mainstream media to communicate important updates to the public, a question of the country’s trust in News media has been raised. But what is causing this doubt in News’ credibility?
Why is Trust in Journalism important?
In an age where we’re bombarded with news updates from all angles and in all forms — living through the dominance of social media and digital media platforms — trust in REAL journalism (as opposed to amateur journalism or fake news) is now more important than ever in order to stay accurately informed (Holbert, 2005) and avoid being misguided by inaccurate research, or opinions and biases being disguised as fact in order to gain clout and traction. As Strömbäck et al. (2020) pointed out: “even a perfectly informative news media environment is of little democratic use if citizens… do not trust the news.”
Staying in the loop of current affairs allows people to contribute accordingly to their communities and to act towards relevant issues that are most in need of attention and rectifying. In other words, people need to be able to distinguish the truth from the trash in order to help societal progression! It sounds dramatic, but on a large scale, that is the importance of journalism.
As the Reuter’s Institute acknowledged…
“…in a world where, despite their imperfections, many news media remain the most reliable independent sources for accessible, timely, and relevant information about public affairs, declining trust may be a significant barrier for citizens seeking to make informed political decisions and hold leaders accountable.”
When researching into the importance of trust in news, Strömbäck et al. highlighted some key challenges facing contemporary news media that means its holding of public trust is now at all all-time-height of importance: in order to ensure the public stays informed and isn’t led astray through false information.
Challenges for News Media: Increasing Trust’s Worth
1. The myriad of other sources and platforms offering new information and news updates means the competition for audience attention is fierce.
Even with the unprecedented upheaval of 2020 aside, we live in a society where we are surrounded by news updates, constantly. We now not only receive news updates through choosing to turn on the 10 o’clock news or pick up a newspaper, but we’re now alerted through news apps, social media (Twitter, I’m looking at you), messages from friends and Whatsapp group chats which start your morning with a message from your work colleague Jane or John saying “have you seen the news?!” A rude awakening for your brain, more often than not.
2. Digital and social media making political — and other social — actors less dependent on news media to reach the public.
(Again — Hi, Twitter…) People no longer need to rely on news media to distribute informative updates, a quick scroll through a social media app or a news app allows people to feel like they are up to date with the latest happenings of the country, the whole western world and the most pressing issues from across the globe.
In addition to offering a convenient alternative, Strömbäck et al. points out that these platforms also offer places of news media bashing — attacking and discrediting any mainstream news media’s credibility and therefore working to diminish the need for them even more. ‘Why would you watch the news anyway? It’s so depressing and isn’t even accurate — it’s bias against YOUR views!’…Which leads me to the next challenge…
3. People tend to prefer ‘attitude-consistent’ information
The Guardian acknowledged that the issue of trust may also be in accordance with political leanings: Reuters Institute found 82% of those sitting right-wing thought the government was doing a good job, but only 14% of those on the left. This is an example of Strömbäck et al.’s proposition: that people are increasingly only interested in reading news that reinforces their own views and ideals.
Lead author Nic Newman explained in Express and Star that “divided societies seem to trust the media less, not necessarily because the journalism is worse but …because news outlets often carry more views that people disagree with.”
This is unfortunately fuelled by the use of social media; with the dominance of platforms such as Facebook and Twitter — whether for news updates or general aimless-scrolling leisure — and special thanks to the ‘Filter Bubble’ (Pariser, 2011), people are growing increasingly accustomed to only seeing this non-opinion-challenging information. This means people are falling out of the habit of acknowledging disagreeing view-points, and are therefore less tolerant when faced with them. (I’ve linked a video above for the Filter Bubble of Eli Pariser explaining it himself — I recommend watching! It explains the nature of algorithms too).
Is this therefore causing a domino effect through the news journalism industry itself? In order to retain reader favour, surely news outlets are more likely to only share updates that reinforce their demographic’s attitudes? In order to avoid a decrease in views, readers and subscriptions. However, surveys carried out by the Reuters Institute and YouGov. have suggested this as one of the key reasons for unsteady trust in news media: perceived bias being offensively evident, such as that identified in the BBC by LEAVE voters during the EU Referendum.
4. FAKE NEWS
Misinformation and disinformation is circulating amidst the jungle of news updates just as much as factual news — so how can people distinguish between the truth and the trash? Discerning between what is real and what is fake online has been shared as a particular issue posed by online media platforms (Newman et al. 2020) and was highlighted by Reuters Institute in December 2020.
Misinformed people make misguided decisions, and if passionate attitudes and movements are formed around this false information it can lead to eventualities as drastic as riots breaking out based on an extreme course of Chinese whispers.
Plus, aggravating the issue is the fact that politicians seem less afraid of being caught with providing disinformation, as Strömbäck et al. points out: exhibiting Donald Trump as a prime example.
Now, as pointed out by Quinn (2015) in ‘Law for Journalists’, the Codes of Practice used by the IPSO, National Union of Journalists (NUJ) and Ofcom all recognise the duty of journalists to ‘ensure that the information they publish is accurate’. This should work to fuel the public’s trust in material produced by Journalists practicing under these Codes of conduct; it should work to win the competition for audience attention with the reassurance that the news is factual!
However, I suppose this circles back to point no.3: if people are reading fake news that inflates their own sense of righteousness, perhaps they aren’t inclined to question if it is true. Then, when algorithms get involved, this fake news is being fed to readers through this very variable: their currently-held ideals! So, we circle back to the detriment of the ‘Filter Bubble’.
Upon stepping back, we can see how these challenges are collaboratively working to overshadow news media, even though they are offering the public accurate information.
Pandemic Posing Increased Importance of Trust in News
On application to the current climate, we have been more reliant on regular news updates than ever before. Accentuated by circumstances such as when we were all bound to our homes between the months of March and May, the nation needed as full a picture as possible of the world beyond their four walls, partially to maintain hope of when promise of a more ‘normal’ daily routine would return. Were the death tolls coming down? Was the NHS coping? How many cases are there in my local area? When will we be able to see our family and friends again? In many ways, the frequent updates kept everyone in the loop, perhaps helping towards supplementing a sense of togetherness that was lost in isolation.
Trust in journalism is also essential to us reaching that light at the end of this (painfully) long tunnel, with a minimum number of lives lost along the rest of the way. Why? Because the more people trust the statistical updates concerning rises in cases, lives lost, new symptoms, new strains, and the updated government advice, guidance and laws, the more likely our collective society will comply in order to save the lives of their neighbours and peers.
But instead, what has arisen? Wide-spread conspiracy theories concerning the motives of news outlets and journalists and the government, as well as the vaccines (oh, they contain a tracking device apparently? Although I’d hate to tempt fait and slash that theory…) and not to mention the virus itself: the idea that it was all a hoax even led to a sizeable stand-in protest in Trafalgar Square — which was conveniently neglected by news coverage…(odd, huh? But that’s a whole other issue…)– among many others, world-wide!
Why is there doubt now?
Rallying Around the Flag in a Crisis
I was surprised to discover (via YouGov findings) that the public’s rating of the PM and Conservative Party were at an all-time high since the pandemic. If you only judged by the mainstream news coverage — and the news supposedly represents the voice of the people, as expressed by Mark Austin, a news presenter at Sky News, in the Guardian online — it would seem the nation is disagreeing with every move Boris Johnson and his government make.
In actuality, it is apparent that the “aggressive questioning of the government’s response to the coronavirus outbreak” is one of the key reasons for the perceived wavering in trust among readers for news distributers, as identified by the Guardian.
YouGov for the University of Oxford’s Reuters Institute conducted a survey that found 54% of the 2,823 people polled thought that the UK government was responding well to the pandemic crisis, while a quarter of the sample felt the media had exaggerated the crisis, indicating this government-critique approach could be eroding trust.
Evidently, in a society plagued by stress, worry and anxiety, the media content that gains people’s respect is that of government support, ‘rallying around the flag’, and encouraging hope for better days.
News Media is Inferring Bias
Referring back to the bias being perceived in today’s news, potentially in an attempt to keep audiences on side as I suggested earlier, Psychology Today pointed out that “the politics of the modern world have polarised significantly in the past decade, and this may also have indirectly increased the willingness to believe so-called fake news because much fake news has a political purpose.”
The same article also strengthens Strömbäck et al.’s idea of preference for attitude-consistent information, saying “the greater the gulf in political beliefs, the more that people will seek information that confirms their beliefs and condemns the beliefs of their opponents, whether that information is true or false”.
The article subsequently shares the opinion that “news outlets are cynically attempting to broadcast their own heavily angled political views”, and evidence has shown this to be contributing to depleting trust levels.
So, how can trust in News Media be salvaged? I don’t claim to have all the answers, but I would like to shed a spotlight on Lord Reith’s original intention when he founded the BBC: “to act in the public interest, serving all audiences through the provision of impartial, high-quality and distinctive output and services which inform, educate and entertain.”
It may be that the BBC is losing sight of that word in bold there, as are many of their fellow news servers. But it’s evident that, despite people’s desire for information that reinforces their own beliefs and views, impartial news is more trusted as it’s self-evident of absent ulterior motive: why would they publish news that may lose them favour? Because it’s the truth.
