Column: Surprise, surprise study shows we all just want the facts Shannon Casas
A media insights study has discovered that Americans want facts.
Yes, it sounds on the surface like one of those no-duh studies that wasted money to discover what we all know already.
There’s actually quite a bit more to the 78-page study, “A New Way of Looking at Trust in Media: Do Americans Share Journalism’s Core Values?,” which was released this week by the Media Insight Project, a collaboration between the American Press Institute and The Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research.
But for the purposes of this column, we’re going to stick to the facts.
Bad news for journalists: The public doesn’t share our values.
A new poll from the so-called Media Insight Project is disturbing. The pull quote in the Style section is “Only one of five core values touted by journalists also shares support of a majority of Americans.” The list:
Oversight. We’re the watchdogs keeping an eye on government officials and other powerful people and institutions.
Transparency. We believe it’s best to put information out in the open, not keep it hidden.
Factuality. It’s crucial to provide as much accurate information as possible to get to the truth.
There is a widening trust gap between the public and the media, according to two new reports.
The majority of Americans (67%) believe that facts bring people closer to the truth, but only 29% of Americans believe highlighting the country s problems will make it a better place, according to a Thursday report from the Media Insight Project.
Americans who value loyalty and authority were less likely to believe there should be watchdogs spotlighting problems with those in power, the Media Insight Project found. Those who value fairness, however, were more likely to believe people should highlight smaller voices.
The moral differences between Americans, therefore, has an impact on which stories Americans think the press should highlight versus ignore even more so than political differences, according to the report.
Many Americans don’t support journalistic values, study says
Most if not all journalists likely share a commitment to a set of journalistic values, including a belief that those in power should be subject to oversight, that transparency is the right approach to important information, that facts are required to get to the truth, that the less powerful deserve a voice, and that revealing the flaws in society helps us to deal with them. But do consumers share a commitment to these values? A study published on Wednesday by the Media Insight Project, a joint venture of the American Press Institute and The Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research, suggests that many do not, and that this could help explain why there has been a crisis in trust when it comes to mainstream journalism. The authors say their study shows that uneasiness with these core values of journalism crosses ideological boundaries, and the bottom line is that “when journalists say they are just doi
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