The Loss in Trust of the News

A recent study shows that since 2016 there has been a steady decline in the American public's trust in news and online information. The Pew Research Center states that only 38% of Americans regularly follow news, as opposed to 2016 where 51% checked for new updates everyday.  In fact more people than ever are straying farther away from news media and researchers don’t have a definitive answer as to why. When trying to pinpoint factors as to why this would happen, The Pew Research Center found that “The recent decline in Americans’ attention to the news has occurred across demographic lines, including education, gender, race, ethnicity and political party affiliation.” It seems that one unanimous answer cannot be nailed down, however there is room to speculate based on the events of the last seven years. 

On the internet, misinformation spreads like wildfire, even things as innocent as a picture of a dog could be fake and you would never know thanks to AI imagery. The problem with this is that in a changing world of technology, most people haven’t learned how to sift through and catch these fakes. Due to this problem, millions of people are misled and given false information to base their opinions on every single day. 

One of the biggest problems with major news sources is the precedent of politics and bias. A big example of this is CNN and Fox News. CNN is a left leaning news organization and Fox News is a right leaning news source. Both openly criticize and call each other out for false information on the daily. Both sides also refuse to report facts that would discredit the political party that they are aligned with. The problem with this is that as a journalist, you have the responsibility to report 100% factual and unbiased information. If you cannot do this, it heavily damages your credibility and puts into question the legitness of your media as a whole.

To add more fuel to the fire, there has recently been a new tactic of Politicians. Most notably former President Donald Trump and current President Joe Biden have taken shots at major news sources. Discrediting their truthfulness and where they get their sources. An attack like this from a president of the United States is quite harsh, as many rely on people in charge for guidance and assurance. 

The very nature of Journalism is always changing, but we’ve never seen something quite like this. As more and more people tune out of the news sector, the more and more uninformed people become. In years to come, with the current state of the charts we could see the trust in news become lower and lower. With all the lies, false information, and mistrust in the world it is easy to see why some would just cut out the source from their lives.