The Credibility of Journalism

Claudia Bauman

Clbauman2@gmail.com

 

The Pride of Journalists

In the United States we have the privilege of having uncensored new outlets to stay fully informed with what is going on in our government and the world around us. With this comes great responsibility as this power can easily be misused.

Over the years as news outlets competed for viewer attention and as biased new outlets become more popular, many have begun to stretch the truth. This goes against the core values that journalism should uphold -- an obligation to tell the truth and the journalists' loyalty to the citizens.

According to Business Insider, 62% of Americans think that the media and news they consume is biased. They believe that the top three biased news outlets today are Fox News, Breitbart News, as well as MSNBC. The outlets also tend to either favor Republicans or Democrats which also creates a divide in the population that is consuming this information.

The news is meant to be nothing but facts, but human emotions often get in the way and misconstrue the information being presented. Many times, things are fabricated to sway an audience and encourage them to take sides such as voting for a specific president during election time.

Picture source: Gallup.

 

 Humans are Natural Journalists

As humans we have an inherent need to share our world with others around us and to be informed with what others are doing. Sharing this kind of information is at the core of how humans communicate.

In one way we as a population have failed our part of taking in the news. Now most middle school and high school students don’t learn how to consume the news, and hence, they are easily swayed by new outlets.

The only way that this can be fixed is through practice till everyone can do this without thinking. This will built trust between individuals and various groups of people. Until then we will see people continue to not trust the news and/or be misinformed.

According to Gallup News in the 1970s around 68-72% of people trusted the media and news but that has been on a steady decline for awhile now. Since 2005 this number has not been above 47% which very concerning. 

We have seen different populations rise up and protest various news outlets to demand change. This has been from things like the spread of misinformation to the government trying to censor the news or feed the population lies and allow them to be misled.