With trust in the news media at an all-time low, it's affecting even rural and community journalists - Entrepreneur Generations

By Al Cross
Director, Institute for Rural Journalism and Community Issues
Extension professor of journalism, University of Kentucky

Trust in "the mass media, such as newspapers, TV and radio" in polls taken by the Gallup Organization is at 32 percent, the lowest ever. A Feb. 5-6 Emerson College poll of registered voters, weighted to reflect turnout in the 2016 election, found them evenly divided about the Trump administration's truthfulness, but by 53 to 39 percent, they considered the news media untruthful."

Such polls rarely distinguish between national news organizations and local news outlets, which limited surveys suggest have a much higher level of trust. But rural and community journalists worry that the attacks on "big media" are hurting "little media," too.

One is Mark Smith, editor of the Davenport Times in Lincoln County, Washington, just west of Spokane, who was a minister for 14 years. He told columnist Sue Lani Madsen of The Spokesman-Review that the current atmosphere reminds him of the 1980s scandals involving televangelists, which "forced him to defend his profession at a local level," Madsen writes, quoting him: “There is the same sense now that if one media source is bad, they all are.”

Madsen says she trusts Smith "because I know him as a member of the community, but once we move beyond the hyperlocal news of a rural county, how do we know whom to trust? . . . He believes he’ll weather the fake news and biased media storm because he’s built relationships in the community to establish trust and credibility. There’s an accountability that comes from being a visible presence at the local city council meeting or high school sports events. People feel free to let you know face to face if they have a complaint."

Community journalists know that, but Smith felt it in a more meaningful way of it last summer, when he "had serious health issues last summer that delayed production of the paper," Madsen writes. "He wrote about it frankly and discovered how deep those community relationships had become. . . . He was warmly surprised at how people sought him out to wish him well."

“I used to only hear from people when they wanted to point out a flaw,” Smith told Madsen. “Writing about my heart attack humanized me in some people’s eyes.”

Madsen notes, "It’s tougher to build trust and credibility, to make that human connection, as the circle gets larger. The chance that you’ll know one of the reporters of your regional newspaper, television or radio station becomes remote. Spokane journalists are grappling with breaking down the barriers using social media."

That's an important device, because social media have become the dominant source of information for most Americans, not counting the traditional media stories they pass along. But social media are largely unfiltered, and lack the verification procedures of journalism (with the very limited exceptions of Google banning fake-news publishers from its AdSense network and Facebook limiting its Trending Topics box to matters covered by a significant number of credible publishers).

Verification is one of the essential elements that distinguish journalism from other types of information. "Its essence is a discipline of verification," Tom Rosenstiel and Bill Kovach wrote in The Elements of Journalism, a book recently revised and updated with material on social media, the challenges facing print journalism, and "how journalism can fulfill its purpose in the digital age."

The other elements, in some cases better called principles, say journalism has truth as its first obligation and citizens as its first loyalty; that it must be an independent monitor of power and provide a forum for criticism and compromise; that it should keep significant information interesting and relevant, and make news coverage comprehensive and proportional; and that journalists must have a sense of ethics and be allowed to exercise their conscience. Kovach and Rosenstiel also say citizens have rights and responsibilities when using media, especially verifying what they pass along.

The latter point is unlikely to get much adherence, but it and the other elements provide a basis for journalists and the public to better understand each other's roles. That appears to be more important than ever, everywhere.

from The Rural Blog http://ift.tt/2lApYua With trust in the news media at an all-time low, it's affecting even rural and community journalists - Entrepreneur Generations

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