Journalism in the Age of Technology

Hayley Love

hl303314@ohio.edu

Technology and social media have always affected journalism and news. With the advancement of technology, journalism has been distrusted but has survived because it has provided something unique to a culture.

Bill Kovach and Tom Rosenstiel discussed the media trust in Poland in the 1980’s. The Polish military had just declared martial law and had cracked down on the media and speech. The only available news was a state-run televised station, obviously biased on not truthful. “We also reject your version of truth.”

Citizens should have the right to the truthful media, correct? In more recent years, there has been a rise in distrust of the media. It is no secret that the 2016 election caused many Americans to mistrust the government and the media it published.

According to a 2016 study by Gallup, “Americans' trust and confidence in the mass media ‘to report the news fully, accurately and fairly’ has dropped to its lowest level in Gallup polling history, with 32% saying they have a great deal or fair amount of trust in the media. This is down eight percentage points from last year.”

It was believed by many that these news stations were publishing “fake news” and news that was not truthful. The president feeds the people these lies about how journalists are creating “fake news” which then creates an uproar of the people whom support him. He hides behind new social media such as Twitter to spew his hatred of the media. This only creates further mistrust in the media from the people.

So, should we trust the media or not? In more recent year’s media trust has gone up! In my opinion, Donald Trump has created this high distrust in media from the Republicans, and according to Poynter, “After decades of declining trust in the press, coupled with relentless rhetorical attacks on the media by President Trump, there’s finally some good news: Trust in media is up since last year, and the great majority of Americans trust their local news sources.”

I believe that this also ties into the ideas from Chapter 10 and the role of citizens and trusting the media. The people need to support and act on the journalists. They citizens need to engage in local journalism to show support and to help create more credible news. Bill Kovach and Tom Rosenstiel state, “What those aspects are, and what growing responsibilities they convey, constitute the final element of journalism, one that has always been at play but that in the new century is becoming more palpable, and more vital. It is the role of citizens.”