Trust in the media is the first casualty of a post-factual war

As politics polarises, the mainstream media is being abandoned in favour of partisan reporting – or no reporting at all

Peter Preston: https://www.theguardian.com/media/2016/sep/24/trust-in-media-first-casualty-post-factual-war-corbyn-trump?CMP=twt_a-media_b-gdnmedia

Compare with Euromonitor Trust research

Trust – or rather, the absence of it – stands suddenly top of journalism’s talking shop. Gallup in the US releases another of its annual polls that shows trust in the mass media “to report the news fully, accurately and fairly” has dropped to its lowest level in polling history – with only 32% saying they have a great deal or fair amount of such confidence.

Those findings are down eight percentage points from last year. Compare and contrast a whopping 72% trust rating on parallel Gallups in 1972, opinions sampled directly after the Watergate heroics: different reputations, different times.

                   

And as for Britain, the ambitious director of the Impress regulation project has been setting out his stall recently. “The press is sitting on a trust timebomb,” claims Jonathan Heawood. He cites Ipsos Mori results showing that a mere 25% of the UK public trust journalists to tell the truth – and he produces wider European research to reveal that we’re flat bottom for reverence right across the continent. “Only 22% of the British public say they tend to trust the press, the lowest rating in Europe. 73%, nearly three-quarters of the public, say they tend not to trust the press, the worst trust rating by a long way – beyond Greece on 65%, and Serbia on 63%”.

Impress, naturally enough, doesn’t let such disquieting perceptions lie. It contrasts newspapers’ ratings’ mire with the somewhat higher confidence levels that broadcasters enjoy. Why? Because they’re monitored by Ofcom rules on evidence checks, fairness, balance and the rest – an underlying ring of confidence. And now, Heawood claims, the press and attendant websites can choose the same higher ground – by signing up for Impress regulation and displaying its “trust mark” on their front pages.