The Trust Deficit Grows Exponentially

The word is out. Choose your own poll. Phone a friend. Gaze from your own porch. Whatever you decide to think about today, the vote is in that you, not unlike millions of others have lost trust in today’s mainstream media. But that isn’t necessarily a bad thing either.

Distrust In The U.S. Media Increases To 57%
For the fourth year in a row, the majority of Americans say they have little or no trust in mainstream media. That resonance has increased to 57% of pollsters. The lack of confidence applies to newspapers, television, and radio. Americans just aren’t buying into the commercialistic hype that infiltrates the news with diagonal slanting, insincerity, and markedly saturation of shallow infotainment. To put it bluntly, there is very little news in the news anymore.

Even though the populist idea of infotainment sells to huge crowds, the overall substance is just not there.  There is no teeth. People are not drinking the Kool-Aid anymore. But make no mistake, the audience wants news. Eight out of ten desperately want the headline of the day. But, three out of four dentists just don’t recommend mainstream media anymore. There is too much decay.

It seems like the only thing that people want to read these days has to be in the form of a text or an app. The blogosphere of freedom has put a hurting on the restricted newspaper industry. It’s not that newspapers don’t get a big following online, it’s just a problem of monetization. People want information, but they just don’t want to pay for it. Apps on the portable, well that is a gone-out-of-control phenomenon.

Distrust In Television And Newspapers Increases To 75%
If we are talking about television and newspapers solely, another poll says that 75% of Americans do not have a great deal of confidence in television or newspapers.  This is astounding if you stop and really think about it. For most of the 20th century Americans relied upon a steady diet of Walter Cronkite.

Almost Half Of Americans Think The Media Is Too Liberal
Nearly half, about 48% of Americans perceive the media as being too liberal. And the bias perception depends on who you talk to. With nearly half of the crowd trusting the media, the other half does not. The crowd that does tends to be far more liberal, mostly Democrats and the like. But the independent crowd has lost trust in the media.

The Integration Of Media
Realistically, there has been a switch to cable television and the internet. Also, what seems to be taking place is traditional sources of media integrating with other sources of fresh media. And just wait when Google TV hits he mainstream. Things will really go bizarre.

You now have or will have multiple choices and abundant variety. The social networks are flooding with information. And some of that is reliable. Or, you have the opportunity to get your broadcasted news online, from somewhere out of Asia or Europe. And some of that is reliable. But broadband speeds do exhibit room for improvement.

Traditional journalism  has merely redistributed itself, so to speak. And that’s the way it is, if you can trust it, that is.