Journalist and community public trust
Everywhere you look, people question the trustworthiness of the media. With so many voices out in the Internet, it can become difficult for the audience to discern what is reliable and what is fake.
According to a Pew Research study, 50 percent of Americans view the issue of made up news as one of the biggest issues we face today, ranking higher than other large issues like violent crimes, racism and illegal immigration. Many people seem to be fed up with the consistent fake news cycle that glares at them every time they try to stay informed.
Although the previous study also shows that U.S. adults blame political leaders as the cause of made-up news, they believe that journalists should be responsible for clearing up the misleading information. As journalist one of our main objectives is to hold leaders accountable to what they say and do, but when journalists fall short of doing this, an even bigger mistrust of the media arises.
When a journalist is tasked with a story to write, many factors play into how they will get the information needed for the story. One of these factors is their sources.
Finding the right sources that are willing to talk with you can be one of the most difficult parts of being a journalist, for your whole story usually relies upon people getting back to you or wanting to talk with you. The sources a journalist acquires is critical to how the story reads. When handling a large topic, the journalist must understand their personal bias before writing the article and knowing that both sides of the topic must be sourced in order for the information to be reliable.
Not only is the representation of both sides important, but the two-source policy also allows for the clarification of facts. If one source says something unbelievable, you double-check their facts by assessing what someone else tied to the situation also said. According to the article “Verification as a strategic ritual,” some people have up to six or seven sources to validate a single fact.
This dedication to the validity of sources is a value that audiences desire in journalists. When this is has lacked in journalists, people gained a mistrust for them. One example of this can be seen in the move ‘Shattered Glass.’ Stephen Glass makes up many of his sources and quotes them like they are real people, writing untrue stories for the New Republic magazine.
This creates an immediate distrust with the audience once they find out that none of the sources used are real and trustworthy. Glass works around the fact check system within his newsroom and creates convincing stories that everyone loves reading. When the fact-checkers overlooked his work, they relied on his untruthful notes that he took, leading them astray.
Verification is described in the article “Verification as a strategic ritual” as being central to their work and check every fact with an independent source. If a journalist is unable to get their sources, facts and information verified, they are at risk of losing their audiences long-term trust.
According to Jock Lauterer, author of Community Journalism Relentlessly Local, community journalist must be dedicated to their sources, which come from the community they serve, saying their should be few barriers that between mainstream and the newsroom.
“As community journalists we are responsible to our readers to bring them the complete, accurate, fair and balanced story to the extent we can make it so,” Lauterer said.
People in a community truly value what their local news says, and desire to have journalist that truly care about what they value as a community. I believe that community journalists miss the mark when they overlook what a community thinks is important. In order to respect their community, journalists must put the journalist’s themes of sources, verification and accuracy at the forefront of their work.
Journalist depend on the public trust of the people they are writing for, if they do not have it, then they are must quickly work to gain it back.