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if you've got a few minutes to blow, i'm wondering what you think about american news media. to answer your next question, no, this isn't a homework thread (although id love to cite a TLnet poll in a paper of mine. my professors would love it). this is personal curiosity - admittedly, i am a journalism student who may end up working in the industry and so its more than just a casual curiosity.
these questions are being asked mostly with americans in mind but foreigners should feel free to answer and elaborate what its like on their shores.
let me preface this by saying, yes, i know that these questions and the terms in them are vague. even the terms 'media' and 'news media' are, imo, too vague. however, many people often think of 'media' as a single entity. in addition, similar polls use similarly vague wording.
Poll: Do you trust American media?
(Vote): Yes, most of the time
(Vote): No, most of the time
With that in mind, do you think American media is becoming more or less trust worthy?
I ask this because I think there's this real problem in America with mythologizing the past (positively or negatively) with respect to many, many things.
I was thinking and writing about this in a larger context and I came to the realization that I don't know what the fuck most people think the news media was like in, say, the '50s or in the '20s, or, really, even what people today think of the news media even in the '80s.
Poll: Has American news media become more or less trustworthy over the years?
(Vote): American media has always been basically trustworthy.
(Vote): American media has never been basically trustworthy.
(Vote): American media has become more trust worthy.
(Vote): American media has become less trust worthy.
In case you're wondering, I think the questions are important simply because you can't fix the perceived problems with news media today without understanding its history.
And people definitely do perceive a problem. In similarly vague polls, a significant percentage of Americans have repeatedly said that they don't trust a lot of what news media says.
That's the big question of this thread: is it getting better or is it getting worse? Why and how?
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hm hm hm! thanks for the poll answers so far.
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Russian Federation1381 Posts
Only americans can leave opinions? I think most of stuff is either being pulled out of the ass or used with political purpose. I think in the many parts of the world media is just basically a mass brainf*ck that predetermines what people should know, what they should not, who they should consider smart and who stupid, who they should ballot for and what to consider wrong or good. They are doing what they want or what the bunch in government wants. It can't be trusted.
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no i wrote "foreigners should feel free to answer and elaborate what its like on their shores."
definitely appreciate your response.
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The issue is mostly that there are vested power interests seeded deeply within the news media as a whole. Each has their own agenda, although not all of them are as open about it as, say, Fox News / Murdoch. The news is simply a business, and what motive does anyone have starting such a business in the first place? I would venture to say most of the reporters out there are doing it for the pure 'getting the story out there' element, but the moguls behind the business have a clear agenda in mind. Ultimately, they decide what is put on the air or on print, and what is not. Occasionally you get the hiccup or two coming through from the field reporters (I remember a couple distinct ones on Fox during Katrina and the Iraq War), but those kind of things are quickly forgotten about and the regular news slant fits back in.
As for getting better or worse, it's tough to tell. The news in America started as nearly a partisan ordeal, and it's tough to imagine that it's really changed all that much. If anything, the one change is that it's become less honest about it's intentions. Early newspapers were extremely blunt about their allegiance, whereas nowadays you have to track campaign contributions and take note of who ends up on the editorial pages or in the newsroom. Speaking of editorial pages (and it's new media equivalent in news 'commentary' ), they're a clever way of distracting you from the fact that the rest of the news coverage might indeed be slanted.
The 'power' element is definitely the dangerous one behind all of this, though. The media plays the Republican vs Democrat card well, and it serves as both a facade and a distraction from the deeper issues at hand. We're constantly bombarded with what each side says about this or that, with very little 'real' news on a subject. Consequently, it becomes incredibly easy for the government to effectively pull the wool over our eyes, especially in regards to international events and, most poignantly, war. This was finally realized when looking back on the events leading up to the disaster of the Iraq War, and how even a lot of the usual news-focused American journalists were getting stuck in the patriotic craze. But hey, American aggression abroad usually benefits the moguls behind the scenes, so I'm sure they were quite pleased with the entire ordeal.
Enough rambling for me...
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Very vague poll. I don't trust them to be impartial and I would hope that people absorbing any news have enough common sense to consider if an outlet is slanted. Hopefully nobody is watching FoxNews or MSNBC primetime and thinking they aren't full of bias and opinion. I don't trust them to cover stories that need to be covered instead of chasing after the next celebrity death or blond teenager that goes missing in Aruba.
I don't think they make stuff up and I think they get their facts wrong sometimes but I am sure they have fact checking teams and don't BS on purpose. I still double check stuff I hear on the news more often than stuff I read on wikipedia, which is kind of sad.
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On October 29 2009 18:47 BlackJack wrote:
Very vague poll. I don't trust them to be impartial and I would hope that people absorbing any news have enough common sense to consider if an outlet is slanted. Hopefully nobody is watching FoxNews or MSNBC primetime and thinking they aren't full of bias and opinion. I don't trust them to cover stories that need to be covered instead of chasing after the next celebrity death or blond teenager that goes missing in Aruba.
I don't think they make stuff up and I think they get their facts wrong sometimes but I am sure they have fact checking teams and don't BS on purpose. I still double check stuff I hear on the news more often than stuff I read on wikipedia, which is kind of sad.
Couldn't agree more, I was actually thinking that to my self the other day, sort of a harrowing thought imo.
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it's cuz the american news media coverage is so biased towards one side or another that they'll say all sorts of bullshit as long as it caters to the viewers.
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the media hasn't been as trustworthy as it used to be since Watergate
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wow, you guys busted out your tinfoil hats in a flash
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Political Socialization in America is a quite scary after thought.
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Most people are retards and tell the difference between opinion-driven aritcles/shows (as much as O'Reilly's a cunt, he's giving opinions, not news)
at the same time, the actual news stuff is skewed one way or another on a lot of things, whether it's blatant omissions of facts, not running a story, adding in shit that's not true, using select wording to direct a reader's feelings or tons of other ways.
it's not necessarily a bad thing that readers have to go to more than one source, because that's whta you should be doing anyway
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Wow I am really surprised at how many people think that the American media has never been trustworthy. I guess this bias comes from a mostly 14-25 demographic of the forums. Have people never heard of Walter Cronkite or the Huntley-Brinkley Report? Dan Rather? Peter Jennings? Tom Brokaw? I think a lot of people are (unfairly) applying their modern day news standards and information accessibility to "trustworthiness" of the past. Several decades ago, people didn't have access to information the way people do now. For many people, the only source of information was from television, radio, or newspapers (which were all part of "American" media). The alternative was word of mouth. Under those circumstances, I would have said that the media was trustworthy.
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The fact that Fox News exist is the reason I never trusted American news media. I know this is a cliche thing to say, but god damn is fox news dumb.
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EPT
