Americans and the News Media: What they do -- and don't -- understand about each other
A key factor in the erosion of Americans’ trust of their news media is a failure to communicate – we have a public that doesn’t fully understand how journalists work, and journalism that doesn’t make itself understandable to much of the public.
This fundamental pattern emerges from a new study by the Media Insight Project. Twin surveys of both the public and journalists asked each group parallel questions about the public’s understanding of journalistic concepts, the public’s interactions with journalists, and how all of that affects people’s assessment of the news media.
The findings reveal problems of miscommunication, as well as opportunities. They highlight shared ideals: for example, the public and journalists want the same things from the press – verified facts, supplemented by some background and analysis. But they also reveal dissatisfaction: many Americans think what they see in the news media looks largely like opinion and commentary – not the carefully reported contextualizing they hoped for.
Keywords
Reader's Corner, credibility
