Across the pond

Trust in journalists has been declining for several years.  As evidenced, for an instance by an article last year in the British Journalism Review by Professor Steven Barnett of the University of Westminster last year. This is a review of surveys of journalists and others over several years by YouGov plc.  (Many other surveys before this one had revealed this decline and the growing lack of respect for the journalistic trade.  But, this one is particularly useful in explaining what has been happening in the last few weeks.)

The figures below from Barnett’s article show the percentage change between 2002 and 2008.

Labour ministers -5%

Leading Conservatives -7%

Leading Lib Dems -7%

BBC news journalists -20%

ITV news journalists -31%

Channel Four news journalists -29%

Journalists on up-market papers -22%

Journalists on mid-market papers -18%

Journalists on red top papers +1%

People who run large companies +4%

(The first of these surveys in 2002 showed the public trusted the broadcast media rather than the print media, and the red tops least of all the print media. Hence the small increase in trust of the red tops, who are still bottom of the league.)

The 2008 results show that that a majority do still trust broadcast news and and 44 per cent trust the upmarket newspapers (defined as papers like The Times, The Daily Telegraph and  The Guardian). But less than 20 per cent trust the mid-market papers (The Mail and The Express) and the red tops (The Sun and the Mirror). Details below.

BBC news journalists 61%

ITV news journalists 51%

Channel Four news journalists  52%

Journalists on up-market papers 44%

Journalists on mid-market papers  19%

Journalists on red top papers 15%

So on the basis of this survey, most of the public don’t trust most journalists.

Why?

See next blog.