Last Updated: March 02, 1999
Printer-friendly version
Just what makes readers think we are not credible reporters of the truth?
Read on, and understand that it’s the basics — such as getting the facts
right — more than anything else that gives readers the impression they
cannot trust newspapers. What’s worse is that the closer readers are to
the story, the more likely they are to be disillusioned by bad reporting.
At least correcting ourselves when we’re wrong is a big help, but it’s
better to get it right in the first place.
These are the results of the biggest survey ever undertaken by ASNE,
as part of the three-year Journalism Credibility Project. The details,
and a second study of newspaper journalists and credibility will be presented
at April’s ASNE convention in San Francisco.
The survey was done by Chris Urban, president of Urban & Associates.
Urban has been working with newspapers for almost 25 years and has done
research for more than 200 newspapers in this country, Canada, Europe and
Latin America.
A lot of measures taken over the years have indicated declining media
credibility. The ASNE survey is different for two reasons:
-
It has been designed specifically to explore the underlying causes of public
perceptions — the details on what specifics and evidence the public sees,
their personal experiences with credibility problems, and what kind of
news judgments they would make in various situations;
-
At the same time, Urban conducted a parallel study of newsroom perceptions
and attitudes, providing a solid foundation for experimenting at eight
newspapers with ways to improve newspaper credibility.
The study, Urban says, proves that the credibility problem is not isolated
to particular groups and is pervasive across demographic and geographic
groups.
“The public perceptions cannot simply be dismissed. The survey gives
the public the ability to offer evidence and explanations, diminishing
editors’ ability to suggest that these are isolated problems,” she said.
— Deborah Howell
