Some journalists say they don't always believe the media either
Associated Press
5.55 p.m. ET (2256 GMT) March 30, 1999 By Deb Riechmann,
WASHINGTON (AP) — Flash! It's not just the public that thinks the news media lack credibility. In a survey, a rising number of journalists say so too.
Turning the tables on the media, the Pew Research Center for the People and the Press interviewed 552 national and local journalists and news executives in print, television, radio and the Internet on how they view themselves.
The results, released Tuesday, indicate that journalists think that reporting has become sloppier, that too many reporters use their articles and newscasts to speculate or state opinion and that financial pressures hamper the quality of news coverage.
"A solid majority of journalists now are extremely critical of their profession on questions of news blurring with entertainment and commentary blurring with reporting,'' says Tom Rosenstiel, director of the Project for Excellence in Journalism, a media think tank in Washington.
The issue of newspaper credibility came up earlier this week when the Associated Press Managing Editors and the American Society of Newspaper Editors announced a project intended to pay more attention to ways that race and ethnicity affect what stories newspapers cover and who is assigned to cover them.
Newspapers lose credibility when their news pages are not as diverse as the communities they cover, said David Yarnold, managing editor of the San Jose (Calif.) Mercury News and the APME's diversity chairman.
"We're all trying to constantly improve our newspapers and we're deeply concerned about our credibility. So, why do we tolerate inaccuracy on this scale?'' Yarnold asked.
The telephone survey of journalists was conducted between Nov. 20, 1998, and Feb. 11.
When asked to cite chief problems facing journalism, half the national news professionals in the Pew survey mentioned such things as sensationalism, a lack of objectivity and inaccurate reporting. About 40 percent cited too much emphasis on the bottom line, competition and declining audience and readership.
The news media's loss of credibility with the public was cited by about one-third of the respondents. But while it ranked third — behind quality and standards and business pressures — concern about credibility has nearly doubled during the past decade.
"Roughly one in three members of the national and local media now say that a decline in public trust, confidence and credibility is the most important problem facing journalism,'' the survey said. This is up from 17 percent of respondents who cited credibility as the most important problem facing journalism in a similar Pew survey of journalists in 1989.
"The good news is that journalists acknowledge a problem and are motivated to do something about it,'' says Diane McFarlin, executive editor of the Sarasota (Fla.) Herald-Tribune and chairman of ASNE's ethics and values committee.
The committee's credibility project has identified key problems, including accuracy, bias, sensationalism and a disconnect with readers, and is testing ways to regain the public's trust at eight newspapers across the nation.
That kind of self-examination usually precedes change, said Bill Kovach, a newspaperman for 30 years and curator of the Nieman Foundation for Journalism at Harvard University.
"The major reason for public disaffection with journalism is the decline in the quality of journalism and the public's lack of confidence in the work that journalists do now that it's become so loaded with infotainment and celebrity information,'' said Kovach, chairman of the Committee of Concerned Journalists, which co-sponsored the Pew survey.
In other findings, the survey said:
—69 percent of national news professionals said the distinction between reporting and commentary had seriously eroded — up from 53 percent in a similar Pew survey of journalists in 1995.
—40 percent said news reports are increasingly full of factual errors and sloppy reporting — up from 30 percent in 1995.
—49 percent of the national news media professionals say the press drives controversies with its coverage of the personal and ethical behaviors of public figures — up from 41 percent in 1995.
—Two-thirds of those in national, local and Internet news say attempts to attract readers or viewers push the industry too far in the direction of infotainment.
—53 percent of journalists and news executives say that pressure to make a profit is hurting the quality of coverage.
freerepublic.com |
