There's a new and fascinating pew research study that perfectly illustrates
this significant disconnect between the news media and ordinary people.
So this is an issue pertaining to trust, how information is disseminated and
more importantly whether or not Americans really buy with what the media is selling.
But what's also incredible is how delusional members of the media tend to be
about how the public perceives them.
Now for example, the study asked journalists and the public to evaluate how
well news organizations carry out the core functions of media.
Speaking truth to power, spreading accurate information about what's
happening in the country and around the world.
Well the results are pretty damning.
So in all five areas journalists actually give far more positive assessments of
themselves than the general public does of the work that they're doing, okay.
So 67% of journalists surveyed say the media do a solid job of
covering the most important stories of the day.
But only 41% of the American public feel the same way.
While 65% of journalists say news organizations do a very or
somewhat good job reporting the news accurately, only 35% of the public agrees.
While 43% of US adults say journalists do a bad job at this.
And When asked if journalists do a good job of serving as a watchdog over
elected leaders, 52% of journalists said Yes but only 29% of the public agreed.
And while 46% of journalists say that they give Voice to
the underrepresented only 24% of the public think that's true.
[COUGH] Excuse me.
Now, I wanna talk a little bit about why I think that is, right.
So my theory is, what we're kind of experiencing
in government is also taking place in the media.
So when it comes to providing a voice to the underrepresented,
I think what the media tends to think of is, hey,
we're hiring more diverse staff and we're talking to a Wall Street person.
But the Wall Street person we're talking to is a black guy instead
of a white guy were doing so good.
We're representing the underrepresented.
No, you should definitely provide a voice to people of all
different backgrounds, nationalities, races.
I'm obviously in favor of that, but it doesn't stop there,
that's not the end all be all, obviously.
So, are they representing the working class in America?
And if you look at corporate media, which usually falls under an umbrella
of like this major conglomerate, major corporate conglomerate.
No, they don't do a good job at representing the underrepresented.
The underrepresented in corporate media are working people,
ordinary working people.
So while nearly half of journalists, 46% say they feel extremely or
very connected with their audience, this is sad.
Only about a quarter of the public,
26% feels that connection with their main news organizations.
Which also makes a lot of sense.
If you look at news consumption trends, like where people get the news,
they still overwhelmingly get most of their news,
not even online, but from local news.
And I don't know when the last time was where you watch edlocal news but
I don't feel connected to what they're up to.
I mean local news people got on my case because I was like why are we still doing
the five day forecast?
Like just look it up on my phone.
They didn't like that, they didn't like that.
Okay, got it.
Okay, whether people should still have their jobs,
I think there are weather reports that are worthy of coverage.
However, I just don't think that what we see,
whether it's in national network news or cable news or local news,
either really resonates with people, and
I don't think people feel a connection with these various news shows.
Now, journalists do seem to understand though that the public doesn't
really trust them or view them favorably.
When asked what one word they think the public would use to
describe the news industry.
Journalists overwhelmingly gave negative responses with many predicting
that the public would describe the news media as inaccurate, untrustworthy,
biased or partisan.
just 14%.
A measly 14% of journalists surveyed say they think the US public
has a great deal or
fair amount of trust in the information it gets from news organizations these days.
Most believe that Americans as a whole have some trust 44% or
little to no trust 42%.
And look, they're pretty spot on.
I mean, we see this play out in the way ordinary people talk about the news,
critique the news, when a similar question was posed to a to the general public.
If you look at this graph, only 29% of US adults say that they have
at least a fair amount of trust in news outlets,
while 27% say they have some trust and a whopping 44% say little to none.
So this is, I think important for news organizations to take in and
really reconsider, especially when it comes to their misconceptions
about how people perceive the way they're doing their jobs.
But also question, why don't they trust us?
And if they don't trust us,
is it because we're not representing the underrepresented?
Just something to think about.