!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD XHTML 1.0 Strict//EN" "http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml1/DTD/xhtml1-strict.dtd"> Streamline Training & Documentation: 21st-Century Journalism IV: Data on the Importance of Trust

Wednesday, June 28, 2006

21st-Century Journalism IV: Data on the Importance of Trust

In March and April of this year, Reuters, the BBC and The Media Center conducted a 10-country poll exploring trust in media. (The countries polled were Brazil, Egypt, Germany, India, Indonesia, Nigeria, South Korea, Russia, the UK, and the US.)

The lead item in the report of the poll results:
... in a world of committed news junkies, trust in the news provider is a key issue. ... almost three in ten [28%] people have abandoned a media source over the past year due to a lack of trust in its content.
One has to hope that the big media companies are paying attention. For any serious news provider — I'm thinking of newspapers, news magazines, radio, TV networks, local TV stations, and Internet news sites — the message seems clear. Pandering to some readers' taste for sensationalism, attitude, and pro forma balance on issues, regardless of the weight of evidence, is not an effective long-term strategy for retaining readers who care about accuracy and genuine fairness.

By the way, interest in news is quite high. Overall, 72% of respondents said they follow the news closely every day. Among those 18-24 years old, the figure was 67%. And 77% of respondents said they prefer to check several sources of news, rather than depending on a single source.

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