Journalism Practitioners Talk Public Trust Before 2019
Photo by Adam Hamza
RICHMOND, Va. – Robertson School journalism instructors and local journalists give honest takes on the state of public trust in the media as we approach the end of 2018.
The press saw many attacks on its credibility in 2018, most notably from President Donald Trump who continues to identify mainstream news organizations as enemies of the people. These repeated attacks on news organizations exploit the declining trust in news media over the past few decades.
Mallory Perryman, Ph. D., assistant professor of journalism at the Robertson School, said this downward opinion of the press has been there for some time. The biggest difference between now and previous decades is how the issue has been brought before the public eye.
“In some ways, things are kind of what they’ve always been. The decline of the press happened before Trump,” Perryman said. “Maybe he exacerbated it, but it was always going down.”
Data collected by the Pew Research Center indicate that trust in the media appears more divided along partisan lines. According to one study Democrats and Republicans were more likely to identify statements as factual if it favored their political party. Data also shows that despite a trend of overall distrust in the media, the majority of Americans support the media in its watchdog role.
As part of her work to understand public perceptions of the media, Perryman will teach a special topics class next spring to address the public trust issues with the media. The course “Truth and Trust in Journalism” is framed by the questions “why is trust in the press so low?” and “how did we get here?”
“We’re going to cover in the first half [of the class] all of the potential causes of why trust in the press has plummeted,” Perryman said. “And the second half of the class will focus on ‘where do we go from here?’”
Perryman said the students will explore solutions to address public trust in the media. She wants them to consider all sorts of solutions. Some may say institutional regulation is needed to increase trust, or that journalist’s behavior must change in some way. Others may say greater media literacy will help audiences understand what journalists do and therefore increase trust. Regardless of what students decide, Perryman doesn’t want to restrict the answers they may find.
“I’m interested to see what the students come up with,” Perryman said. “I’m not going to tell them to make it a big or small solution, so it might be something as simple as maybe they propose a new fact-checking mechanism for a local paper or maybe they think of a nationwide PR campaign… I don’t want to pigeonhole them in there in any way.”
Mary Ann Owens, assistant professor of journalism at the Robertson School, said today’s journalistic environment is like nothing she’s seen before. She thinks the advent of social media will make it harder for people to be brought to the truth.
Owens has been teaching copy editing and journalistic writing at the Robertson school since 2005. She believes journalism needs to be introduced to the masses at earlier stages in order to increase trust and value in the media
“Until we can get people to understand news is fact and it’s not what you want to hear [then] you’re not going to get anywhere,” Owens said. "The only way to overcome this is to educate the masses, and I don’t know how to do that.”
Owens also said that there needs to be more investment in “seeking truth” in order to gain trust back. Not just from the public but from news organizations as well.
“The media outlets need to spend more money producing quality journalism to gain back [trust],” Owens said. “Money has to be invested in seeking truth and until that happens, and I don’t see it happening, I don’t know how we’re going to beat this.”
Looking at the local level, Scott Wise, director of interactive media at WTVR CBS 6, said CBS 6 keeps its trust by constantly serving its community. They do this by not only presenting quality news but by showing how reporters are part of the communities they serve.
“People kind of lump us in with the CNN and Fox News and MSNBC of the world [but] they’re not focusing in on things happening in your neighborhood,” Wise said. “None of us are millionaires flying around in private jets. We’re all driving around in our used cars shopping at the same grocery stores.”
The commitment to the community is the bread and butter of a local TV station according to Wise. Even though slogans like “Working for you” may sound like marketing, and they are according to Wise, they remain the truth.
“It’s our pleasure to be involved in the community and that’s what we’re here for,” Wise said. “If we’re not doing stuff for the community for which we serve, then we shouldn’t really be in the business”