Can You Really Trust The News?
Posted on 16 August 2010 by LynThomas in Society, Technology
The latest research shows that newspapers in particular, are on the endangered species list.
The results come from two Zogby Interactive surveys taken in the past month, one in conjunction with 463 Communications and the other a Zogby project.
The question was asked which of the four primary information sources was most reliable. The Internet was way out front with 37%, with the others closely bunched as follows: television 17%, newspapers 16% and radio 13%.
Most of the news read online is generated by one of the three traditional media sources, who publish online and have their news further disseminated by bloggers, Web news aggregators and social networks. As for information that would not be classified as news (such as how-to-fix-it and medical questions), that too usually originates from sources that exist in other media formats.
Question: “If you had to choose just one news source, which would you choose?” Overall results: Internet 56%, television 21%, newspapers and radio, both 10%.
Question: “How important is news from national newspaper Web sites?” Overall results: most important 15%, very important 34%, only somewhat important 27%, not at all important 24%.
Question: “Are newspapers struggling because they are not doing a very good job, or because of changes brought by the Internet?” Overall results: changes due to Internet 63%, newspapers’ fault 37%.
The Internet allows people to seek information from thousands of blogs, aggregators and social networks, and to migrate to those that share their point of view. The information received may originate from the same old media, but it is wrapped in designer packaging that matches personal tastes and ideologies.
It is believed that news media has been ‘left of centre’ for a very long time. A generation ago Walter Cronkite was the most trusted man in America because of his neutrality. Now people trust Fox the most, precisely because of its lack of neutrality. However, most people believe that news outlets are biased in their opinions.
Julian Assange, WikiLeaks
Following the nationwide drama over the WikiLeaks ‘Afghan War Diary’, which laid bare more than 70,000 classified military documents covering the war in Afghanistan from 2004-2010, one questions just whom can you trust? The Australian Internet activist and journalist , Julian Assange, refuses to back down, in spite of the demands from the Pentagon and U.S. officials, or any other group.
WikiLeaks intends to publish another 15,000 secret documents on the Internet later this month. WikiLeaks describes itself as a public service organization for whistleblowers, journalists and activists.
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