Distrust

A Gallup poll shows half of Americans distrust “mass media news organizations to report fully, accurately and fairly”. A survey done in ten countries shows that, “over one in four people (28%) across 10 countries either strongly agrees (13%) or somewhat agrees (15%) with the statement--- in the past year I have ‘stopped using a specific media source because it lost my trust’. This is particularly the case in Brazil (44%), Egypt (40%), South Korea (39%), and the US (32%). Russians (10%) are least likely to say this, as are Germans (15%), and Indonesians (17%). Citizens of the UK (29%), India (28%), and Nigeria (27%) define the average position across the 10 countries.” “According to a ten-country opinion poll for the BBC, Reuters, and The Media Center, more people trust the media more than their governments, especially in developing countries”

According to the above survey and poll, people have begun to lose their trust to media, no matter in the developing countries or developed countries. But the survey also pointed out that, “more people trust the media than their governments, especially in developing countries”, then I would like to express my opinion in this point.

China is surely a developing country, though it has fast development these years, which therefore results into a serious of problems, such as government official corruption, media system incompletion. And these two factors have been enough to lead to people’s distrust to media and government. Though this survey didn’t cover China, but I do believer China has the same problem with those development countries.

People trust the media more than the government doesn’t mean the media in China is trustful. It is just because people have no choices. In some distance, they may think that the government even is worse than the media. Media will at least try to tell them some facts in order to attract more attention, though the facts may not be real,. But the government will never tell the truth. Officials’ so-call truth is always positive and active. Such as in Sanxi province in China, there are often some mineworkers died from the collapse of the mine hole due to the unqualified mine building. The government will never broadcast the correct death number. The officials always want to hide the truth until being discovered by some journalists who tried every way to get the first hand information. The SARS news was even hided by the government for 4 months……Experiencing too much, the Chinese people began to be suspicious of what the Chinese government published.

Though comparing to the government, the media may gain a little more trust from people, but this trust is so little that, people choose to only believe those authoritative media, or they will make the decision after comparing several reports. Their distrust to media also shows in aspect of the case that, when they are invited to receive an interview about what was happening to them, their most frequent answer is that, even if I express my idea in front of the camera, do you journalists dare to broadcast it? Even if you broadcast my interview, do you think it can help to solve this problem? Can you guarantee you won’t distort what I said?

As a journalist for two years, I understand their disappointment, worries and distrust. How can we complain them? In our department meeting, every one or two weeks, we will be informed a notice that some journalist is punished due to reporting the false news. When people hope we can broadcast the unfair matters happening to them, no matter how serious the matter is, as long as we receive an order to stop following this news, all of the journalists have to keep silent……

So, the distrust from citizens is not only the media’s fault. Of course, the media has to suffer the main responsibility. But the government, political system, and commercial market also lead to this distrust. That is also why we are so difficult to eliminate or decrease the distrust from the audiences or readers.


http://www.globescan.com/news_archives/bbcreut.html
http://economistsview.typepad.com/economistsview/2006/07/why_people_dist.html
http://www.adrants.com/2005/09/half-of-americans-distrust-mass-media-new.php