"It [this report on public trust of media outlets] showed that trust in the news and opinions to be found in Australian newspapers has taken quite a dive in the past year. In March 2010, 62 per cent of the sample had some or a lot of trust. In July this year that figure had slumped to 53 per cent. (The Daily Telegraph, with only 45 per cent expressing any trust, did notably worse than The Australian, The Age and The Sydney Morning Herald).A similar decline was evident for commercial TV news and current affairs. There was even less trust in commercial radio news, and less still for talkback radio, news websites and internet blogs.During the same period, trust in the news and opinions of one news outlet increased: the ABC's. Seventy-one per cent of the sample said they had some or a lot of trust in ABC Television news and current affairs, up from 70 per cent the year before."
Holmes goes on to argue that the lack of respect and enforcement for industry codes of conduct in commercial journalism are the main driving force behind the decline of integrity (or the public perception of integrity, anyway). If you like your Jonathan Holmes - which I assume you do, since you are at least smart enough to read - you will recognise this line of argument.
If I were to play the devil's advocate I might posit that having two tiers of journalism, public and commercial, each with its own particular way of seeking and reporting news ensures that one covers for the shortcomings of the other. The corollary of this lofty notion, however, is that I don't see many negative consequences arising from the ABC's moral frameworks (if perhaps in the way they are interpreted).
Industry standards though? Well, I guess New of the World has proven that playing fast and loose with journalistic ethics sometimes makes the reporters antagonists in themselves; something the industry has to really avoid if they don't all want to be replaced by bloggers one day.
A frightening prospect, really. I can just say whatever I want and I don't ever get in trouble from my editor. My editor is openoffice.org and it is a pretty cruisy boss. Look: John Howard once strangled a puppy. 83% of Coalition voters are incontinent. See? I thought I was getting in trouble for that last one, but it turns out that red squiggly line just meant I had spelt 'incontinent' wrong.
I think you get the point.
No comments:
Post a Comment