British Journalism Review Vol. 19, No. 2, 2008, pages 5-13
A new BJR survey shows public confidence in journalism is still falling. A prominent academic explains why - and why journalists should be worried.
It has not been a good year for journalism. Express Newspapers’ payout of more than half a million pounds to the McCanns for its papers’ unspeakable allegations about their part in their daughter Madeleine’s disappearance was the culmination of 18 months of scandal about lies, fakery, incompetence and downright criminal behaviour throughout the media. Not all of it featured journalists, and some of the problems bore no relation to journalism at all. But the scandals reflected badly on the press and broadcasting institutions that are associated with journalism and the fallout has taken its toll on the public mood. The BJR’s own survey suggests that journalism’s reputation, never particularly high in the league table of public esteem, has suffered massive damage over the past five years.
After 18 months with the media in the dock, it is perhaps hardly surprising that the reputation of journalism has suffered however tenuous its link to some of the TV programmes under attack. At this point, it is worth reminding ourselves that the public has never had a homogeneous view of “journalism”, but differentiates clearly between the print variety and the broadcast variety. Many long-running surveys of public opinion therefore suffer from using the generic term “journalists” rather than distinguishing between the different organisations they represent. That distinction was incorporated into our own survey, which continues the series on trust and public opinion first established by YouGov in 2003. It means, crucially, that we can track how shifts in public opinion may be differentially applied to different kinds of journalism.
So what is the current state of public faith in British journalism? At the higher end of the trust scale, in response to the question: “How much do you trust the following to tell the truth?” slightly more than six in 10 said that they trusted BBC news journalists a great deal or a fair amount (Table 1, below). A little more than half gave the same response for Channel 4 and ITV journalists. At the other end of the scale came the print journalists, with fewer than one in six prepared to trust red-top journalists, and only slightly more for the mid-market titles. Journalists on local newspapers come closest to those on the broadsheets, although in both cases the numbers of people who don’t trust them exceed the numbers who do. Overall, the balance of opinion is still as it was five years ago – positive for broadcast news and negative for print.
Respondents were given examples of newspaper titles to ensure there was no ambiguity. The Times, Telegraph and Guardian were given as examples as up-market newspapers, the Mail and Express as examples of mid-market newspapers, and the Mirror and Sun as examples of red-tops
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What ought to worry all journalists is the massive slide in trust, relative to other organisations or groups, since this question was first asked five years ago. The changes have been plotted for each year the question was asked and are given in Table 2 (below). The final column shows the net change in trust since 2003, and one particular finding stands out: of the 23 groups covered in the current survey, journalists have performed worse than every other one. That applies to each of the seven different kinds of journalists we identified except one – the red-top reporters, whose reputation was so low that it could hardly sink any further. Just about the only crumb of comfort to be derived from the figures is the fact that red-top journalists no longer prop up the table but have the dubious consolation of being overtaken (or undertaken) by estate agents.
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Vocabulary
allegation – (n) a statement that someone has done sth wrong or illegal but it hasn’t been proved; allegation of corruption /fraud /misconduct etc Mr Black has strongly denied the allegations sexual harassment.
feature – (v) to give a prominent part to sb / sth; to display or advertise sth. The exhibition features paintings by Picasso.
downright – (adv) [+ adj/adv] used to emphasize that sth is completely bad or untrue: downright criminal behaviour; She is downright lazy.
toll – (n) a very bad effect that has on something or someone over along period of time; a heavy toll on the environment.
ambiguity – (n) the state of being unclear, confusing or not certain or things that produce this effect: [+ in ] There was an element of ambiguity in the president’s reply. ambiguous (adj) The language in the Minister’s statement is highly ambiguous.
in the dock – the part of a law court where the person who is charged with a crime stands: Three defenders stood in the dock.
crumb – a very small amount of sth: crumb of comfort/hope/ affection etc There was only one crumb of comfort – Alex hadn’t said anything to Jeff.
prop up - (ph/v) to prevent sth from falling The builders are trying to prop up the crumbling walls of the church.The industry is propped up by the government.
dubious – (adj) esp ironic of which the value is doubtful: dubious honour / pleasure / distinction (of doing sth)
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