Mainstream media trustworthiness with the public is at record low in Western societies like the USA, down from 75% to 28% after 5 decades in a recent analysis.
What has caused this downward trend and how big a problem is it?
The causes
It’s unclear if there is a primary cause or this is a combination of issues leading to less trust.
Firstly mainstream media has become more sensationalist, more exaggerated because ultimately shocking news gets more views from people. But over time this has eroded trust in how the news is perceived. News organisations just aren’t seen as a neutral bastion of truth anymore, they are seen as needing to push an “agenda”.
Because both the left and right wing backed news organisations push their agendas heavily towards garnering support of their favoured political spectrum, this heavily influences everyone to mistrust news sources. Neutrality in modern news is increasingly rare, even the so-called global news agencies of Reuters, AP News and AFP have lost trust in people because of the drop in journalistic standards and the trend towards sensationalism.
The more educated members of society are noticing how the levels of misinformation are getting out of control, how standards have dropped and that the news today is just not trustworthy anymore.
Modern news pushes negative stories far more than it pushes positive ones, and this is causing a mass level of fatigue amongst the populace, who are now simply opting to avoid news all together, because it’s just too stressful to keep following.
24/7 news channels report on every terrible story around the world, giving the impression that everything is falling apart. It’s no wonder that people are turning away from trusting news sources, when they look out the window and see a peaceful street, but the news is constantly trying to amp up fear with extended reporting of every horrible situation going on.
How much of a problem is this?
Low trust in the news adds to a low trust society overall and it’s an incredibly dangerous issue to remain long term.
If people can’t trust news sources, their government or institutions, or that the rule of law is followed, then society starts to fracture. The more radical voices start to get through to people, that something needs to radically change.
Unfortunately even if radical change is needed, it is nearly always an extremely destructive transition, with no guarantee that the new system will be any better than the old.
Commenters
“Whenever I see any news about a subject of which I am fairly knowledgeable and experienced, I immediately see how POORLY researched and informed the news reporters and journalists are. They just get these things wrong every single time they report on them. Not just a little wrong but spectacularly wrong.”
“It’s the media’s own fault. They willingly decided to be the unofficial propaganda outlet of their preferred political party. They decided to report lies, opinions, and half-truths as the absolute truth. They decided to engage in enragement instead of actually practicing journalism.”
“Mass media has been consolidated and controlled by a tiny handful of companies, and they frequently aim for wealth, not accuracy or relevance. Trust fell for good reason.”
“Journalists will lie, mislead, and twist facts for their political ideology, then wonder why everyone hates them and no one trusts the media anymore.”
“The media has always been complicit in the worst behaviours of this nation, but now it is no longer hidden and it is extremely obvious that they push narratives to make people angry or scared. They make very deliberate decisions to ignore the most important stories and they bend over backwards to carry water for a criminal administration. They could be tracking the number of crimes people in this administration commit but instead they try to pass off the most egregious violations of the law as normal.”
