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Public's low opinion about the media an is indictment against it
by Joseph Earnest September 28, 2011
Newscast Media HOUSTON, Texas -- Two research institutions have found that public's impressions of the national media is extremely negative, and there is a widely-shared belief that news stories are inaccurate, and the media's reporting of stories is one-sided. This goes against the media's core mission which is to report news truthfully and objectively rather than practice opinion journalism.
The Pew Research Center for the People & the Press has been tracking views of press performance since 1985, and the overall ratings remain quite negative. Fully 66 percent say news stories often are inaccurate, 77 percent think that news organizations tend to favor one side, and 80 percent say news organizations are often influenced by powerful people and organizations.
True journalism should represent different viewpoints with fairness and put them in context, rather than highlight sound-bites and clips of views that may seem conflicting with a journalist's views. The study above also shows that 42 percent of those polled believe the media is immoral, while 63 percent say the media is politically biased in their reporting.
Another core principle of journalism is for a media practitioner to maintain neutrality or independence, accuracy, fairness and have the ability to inform--not their devotion to a certain group or outcome. Below is second study by Gallup that shows the majority of Americans believe the media has a political agenda, with 46 percent of those polled who say the media is too liberal while 13 percent say it is too conservative.
Both studies provide some insight into why the alternative media is more trusted than the mainstream media. Most media practitioners have already made up their minds in regard to which political affiliation they will lean toward. It is either liberal or conservative, there is no in-between. The only practitioners who can be independent and objective in their delivery are journalists.
Yet the media is dominated by analysts, lawyers and commentators, which all started in the mid-90s during the O.J. Simpson trial, when a wave of "legal experts" flooded networks to explain the meaning of terms like, "inadmissible hearsay" or "mitigating circumstances". Thereafter, it was more about someone's personality and the style in which the message was delivered, rather than substance, that's why television and radio use the terms TV or Radio personality.
Media practitioners soon realized how easily they could manipulate stories based upon whatever agenda they were trying to push on their audiences, which has created a generation of media practitioners who walk around with a sense of self-importance, yet audiences are looking for substance.
The survey also finds that most Americans prefer news with no political point of view, and this feeling is particularly widespread when it comes to getting news online. In the Pew Research study the news media is also faulted for invading people's privacy and focusing too much attention on bad news, with about two-thirds of Americans (66 percent) who said news organizations pay too much attention to bad news. Add Comments>>
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