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Public Trust: Mainstream Journalism versus Alternative Outlets

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The decline of public trust in mainstream news, especially relative to alternative online news, remains a contentious but also concerning topic. It can be argued that an excess of editorialised journalism, especially of the broadcast variety, is potentially undermining the potential and trust that goes with mainstream journalism as it is then forced to compete against the far more lax and less reliable standards of alternative media outlets and the associated levels of antagonistic punditry. This makes for a good case for mainstream journalism to play to its strengths, which come by way of drier fact-based coverage with a far more controlled opinion element; something alternative platforms cannot compete against as well as a feature that would potentially reverse the increasing trend of public distrust in journalism.

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Solution Summary

Public trust decline in mainstream journalism is now being further compounded by its adversarial dynamic with various online alternative outlets, outlets that are not as strictly regulated in terms of editorial content. The problem here, for mainstream journalism, is that it cannot quite compete with the opinion-based, narrative driven nature of online alternative media. Here we briefly discuss the argument for mainstream journalism to play to its strength of focussing primarily on dry, fact-based reporting, which could not only distinguish it from alternative options, but also restore public confidence in factual information being relayed.

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Over the course of the last twenty years, public confidence in media and journalism has been on a steady decline. Paired with various global events that have brought upon economic and social malaise, the trust has only steepened further. This has also not been helped much by the rise of online platforms and newer forms of digital alternative media, but what's a true key takeaway is the fact that the erosion in trust isn't a simple phenomenon, but a multifaceted one.

It has been found through various surveys and research that part of the mistrust is also down to partisanship or divisiveness within the public; to get specific, different people are openly trusting of certain sources while passionately opposed to other sources. In the context of a lot of online alternative media, which actually has less editorial oversight and liability, trust appears to be higher amongst highly partisan content consumers while engagement and trust in more mainstream sources - ones often more substantively held to editorial and fact-check standards - remains as ...

Solution provided by:
Kade Storm, MA
Education
  • MA, London Metropolitian University
  • BSc, London Metropolitan University & University of Derby
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