I have recently run into several people, who tell me they do not trust the media. By what they mean big media companies, networks and newspapers. It appears many of them have lost faith in these institutions over a course of fairly short time span. One of them expressed, that the young do not believe everything they are fed by the media, but I do not think this is an age related issue, as such.
Many people who come from countries, where authoritarian governments controll the media, by persecuting and even killing journalists not abiding to the official “truth” have a somewhat justified mistrust in the major media. Many such people live in exile in countries where they do not understand the language to follow local or even international news. To some of them the customs and majority values are so alien, that despite of having a safe haven in their adopted country, they find hard to fit in and trust all what the surrounding culture has to offer. For such people news often come from social media, or other rumours in their immideate family, friends and compatriots in exile.
Today, however, there are plenty of people who have grown up in western democracies, where freedom of speech and freedom of press have been long held in high esteem. Why have people in such conditions lost their trust in media houses, that boast long tradition of journalistic integrity? Is it because of the modern digital format of news, that they are so rushed, that the fact checking is at times poor before publishing? Could it be, that in commercial interrests competition has led to a point where some news providers are more interrested in providing people with a perspective to news items a certain major consumer segment would like to hear, as opposed, or at least regardless, of the facts? It is easy to provide people angles to news items, that fulfil their expectations, preconceptions, fears and biases. The world is changing rapidly and nowhere is this more evident, than in the news. Especially to people who hold values simply assumed from parents and never dared, or having had tools to test them, is this constant change a frightenin thing. For as our understanding grows as we learn new things, it affects the facts we know, knew, or thought we knew and thus our values.
Where do the people who have lost their trust to “the mainstream media” get their newsfeed then? Entertainment tangles a lot in everyday news events. It is often produced with commercial interrest, or a value based political interrest and paints a very specific picture of events and public figures. As far as I can tell to many their newsfeed comes from all sorts of politically inclined small time media, whose commitment to factual reporting and resources to actually achieve any are limited, or unknown, but replaced with all the more political fervour. Some of their news appear to come from the social media rumours and as the digital platform offers a chance for any opinionated moron – myself included – to spout out their version of the “truth”, these two sources get mixed up.
World's Pain 
October 14, 2022 at 11:56 am
A very interesting question you ask.
For me, I generally don’t follow news per se. I think I lost interest along the way. As to trust, I have always taken the news with a pinch of salt.
October 17, 2022 at 2:19 am
I think, that taking the news “with a pinch of salt” is the only way one can keep their trust in the journalistic integrity of news providers. One has to realize the journalists are people too, despite being professionals. It may be the case, that the total falling out of faith in “mainstream media” by so many, actually stems from a relatively black and white worldview. Newsproviders they thought reliable because they had the ideal notion, those painted an absolutely truthfull picture of the world have started to slowly tell stories, that are in contradiction of the values held by the person and when they went looking for the truth, the algorithm fed them a dude, who shares their values and points out some mistakes in the “mainstream” media as a lie. Tells them it is all propaganda as clearly the journalists have values of their own and thus an agenda against the values shared by the dude in the indipendent media and our discomforted seeker.
October 17, 2022 at 5:30 am
I think the MSM has been complicit in people losing trust in them. For example when one finds out they are parroting a govt line or are becoming a mouthpiece for a particular agenda without offering any critique then it becomes highly problematic.
October 18, 2022 at 3:34 am
During the first US Gulf war, I read that the CNN had made a bargain with US military to be the first to get info and coverage of events provided they allowed the military PR personnel to fix the story before it was published. Naturally the commercial news company wanted that edge to win competition over audiences and they did. CNN was the channel to follow events unravel almost real time, when the other sources took their time and even referred to CNN. The military had good and acceptable reason to inspect the footage to prevent any strategic, tactical, or technical secrets to leak out. However, the arrangement also provided them with an opportunity to put out propaganda and hide any possible war crimes. I remember how some of the respected Finnish conservative news papers put out stories, that looked little else than commercials to particular US weapons systems.
Most of the “media critical” people, to whom I refer in my post, were not even born, but those who were adults already then, it appears, were totally oblivious to issues like this. It would seem like we were prone to become critical of authority (such as old and trusted newspapers) only if our personal values get challenged. It is the all-or-nothing attitude, that worries me and I think it comes from ignorance, wich in turn comes from the lack of ability to find out the truth ie. to learn.
October 14, 2022 at 8:50 pm
Great post!! And your last paragraph is spot-on!
October 17, 2022 at 2:44 am
Thank you. Very much.