Fact or Faith?

Hunter Folks

hf346318@ohio.edu

Over the last decade, public faith in traditional journalism and media outlets has wavered. 

According to the American Press Institute, the amount of people who believe the press is trustworthy is under 35%.

The amount of people who think the press cares about them in regard to morality is substantially lower, at barely 13%.

Why is this? Why do people in America have so little faith left in the institutions that were instrumental for centuries acquiring any information outside of one’s own bubble? The rise of independent journalism and the internet may be partially to blame; a better question, however, is what can we do about it and how did we end up here in the first place?

Are the codes of ethics journalists abide by not good enough? I look towards rigorous codes of ethics that have been acceptable and understood for many years, and find that doubtful. Instead, I look towards codes like RTDNA’s Code of Ethics and find a meaningful ethical code that has been updated over time; it spells out a number of scenarios, and makes things pretty clear.

Enforcement of these ethical codes is where problems begin. There is usually very little enforcement or oversight, especially in advertising. Advertising companies are known for exaggerating claims and using studios to produce content that shines the best possible light on the product they are advertising.

Nielsen, a consumer media monitoring agency, found in 2009 that trust in all forms of advertising was dropping, with newspaper advertisements dropping the least. Peer recommendation is listed as the most trusted form of  “advertising” putting traditional advertising styles much lower on this list. 

While certain types of advertising, like web advertising, have always been trusted less by the public, this is not the case for all forms of advertising. As advertisement companies scramble to increase frequency and placements amid the world’s rapid digitalization, this problem is likely to see no end. It may be time for the advertisement industry to consider adopting a code of ethics that is similar in nature to one like RTDNA has. However, I would like to see an industry standardization of this type of ethical code. Some of these codes already exist, like the American Marketing Association’s AMA Code of Conduct, however, there is absolutely no enforcement or expectation of standards to maintain by the bulk of the industry.