Trust, the missing link..
The emergence of online media platforms has placed the media landscape in a state of flux. The relationship between, and subsequent roles of, news producers and consumers have shifted drastically and continue to do so. ‘The people formally known as the audience’ are now contributing to news content creation. Audiences have access to multiple channels of news and are able to pick and choose form the information available. Yet despite this shift there is still a serious lack of trust between audiences and journalists.
It seems as though Australian journalism is at odds with its audience. The Finkelstein report of an independent inquiry into the media and media regulation, which collated the data of the current trends in Australian news media and the business models available was released earlier this year. It named journalists as the fourth least trustworthy professionals, above only real estate agents, advertising people, and used car salesmen.
Though it’s not as though journalists themselves are too blind too see it. In a study conducted in 2004 by RMIT and Roy Morgan a sample of journalists were surveyed. And it seems there are mutual concerns for both journalists and audiences.
Accuracy, bias & ownership, and transparency all contribute to the lack of trust that underpins the gap dividing news producers and audiences. Since the rapid increase of online media outlets and decline in newspaper readership, this gap seems to be growing.
As the Finkelstein report states ‘New technology, particularly the internet, has revolutionised access to the news.’ As we all are aware the Internet has facilitated the use of social media outlets, which has allowed for a dialogue between citizens of the world to develop, a dialogue that journalists feel threatened by. It has also given rise to the role of the citizen journalist.
A citizen journalist is anyone who uses the tools of social media, current examples including blogs and twitter, to publish and share newsworthy information. Though most people that would be considered citizen journalists do no necessarily identify as being journalists, they see themselves as sharing information and participating in an open discussion, and this discussion will continue to grow and inform the ways in which individuals consume news. And yet unfortunately, journalists are still threatened by these people formally known as the audience and news organisations have been dragging their feet when it comes to adopting true participatory conversations with their audience. In fact it has gone so far as for Rupert Murdoch asserting that bloggers appropriation and discussion of content is ‘theft’. So in short, the audience doesn’t trust the journalist, and the journalist doesn’t trust the audience.
Deni Elliott, in Essential Shard Values and 21st Century Journalism, claims that the social responsibility of the journalist in a democracy is to “notice and report the important events and issues that citizens need to know so that they can govern themselves effectively”. Yet with the rise of digital media it seems that the role of the journalist has changed, and that in order to notice report important events and issues journalists need to adopt this notion of an eco-system that collaborates with others (such as bloggers), curates material, and encourages debate. This perceived separation between journalistic ‘professionals’ and those formerly known as the audience is no longer viable.