At a time when public distrust of the news media appears to be at a dangerously high level, there is evidence of a deep and fundamental disagreement between those who produce news and those who consume it.
Although most journalists believe quality and values are vital elements of their work and see themselves as providing an important civic function, the reading and viewing public seems to think of journalism as a bottom-line-driven enterprise populated by the ethically challenged. Last month, the Washington-based Project for Excellence in Journalism released a wide-ranging study — “The State of the News Media 2004” — that concluded that a key factor in journalism’s sagging image is “a disconnection between the public and the news media over motive.”
“Journalists believe they are working in the public interest, and are trying to be fair and independent in that cause,” the survey found. “The public thinks these journalists are either lying or deluding themselves. The public believes that news organizations are operating largely to make money, and that the journalists who work for these organizations are primarily motivated by professional ambition and self-interest.”
This is so self referential it’s hard to get one’s head around it. To me the most interesting point is that these journalists are only now starting to catch on to a major shift in public perception. Just how much value can they deliver if they can miss something like that? It’s particularly embarassing given all of the self indulgent coverage of journalism by journalists.
The UN Oil for Food Scandal is starting to get traction in Big Media. Even they can’t ignore a story that big forever.
Two Albanian men who came under fire from British peacekeeping troops in Kosovo in 1999 have won damages from the Ministry of Defence, after a hearing at the High Court in London. […]
[The judge] ruled that the three Albanians bore no responsibility for the incident, despite the fact that the dead man was firing an AK-47 automatic in defiance of an embargo, or that they refused to stop their vehicle when asked, or that they were approaching a building containing frightened Serbian civilians being guarded from the local Albanian population by the British troops.
Well, yeah, can’t expect them wogs to be civilized and such like, eh, govn’r?