I spend a lot of time in two of my classes at Monroe County Community College talking about credibility in news coverage.
In my beginning journalism class, it’s important for students to learn – right from the get-go – that being accurate and fair is more important than anything else. If readers don’t trust you, why bother.
And in my beginning radio and television class, which is sort of an introduction to mass media, we talk a lot about how the world of broadcast media has morphed into a maelstrom of biased voices trying to outshout each other.
So I was fascinated by this take on the subject by Judy Muller of the University of Southern California’s Annenberg School of Communication. Ms. Muller offers a pointed commentary on the issues we all face while sorting out whom to trust on broadcast news. (Years ago I almost went to USC to get my master’s degree in journalism. it was my second choice; I ended up at Northwestern University’s Medill School of Journalism.)
Here’s how she describes the problem:
“It’s a world in which the mainstream media are in a desperate scramble for ratings and profits, triggering a plunge into the provocative. And what constitutes “news” anyway? Is it Entertainment Tonight or Keith Olbermann or Bill O’Reilly? Is it You Tube?
She laments that it’s no wonder her students are confused. And she adds:
“They find Jon Stewart’s Daily Show more credible than, say, Fox News or MSNBC, and I can’t say I blame them. Parody grounded in substance trumps political prejudice every time.”
We were just talking about the Daily Show in one of my classes this week. Many students do think it’s a better source of news than the network or cable news shows.
As one student said, “I don’t watch the network news. I don’t want to know whether Britney got a haircut.”
So where does that put us, as journalism educators and as news consumers?
On that score, I agree with Ms. Muller, too. She tells her students the best route is to strive to be part of the “credible crowd,” the journalists (and there are still many out there,) who work to be factual and fair, skeptical but not cynical.
“Because when the dust settles in this wild west media shootout, people will still want to know which sources they can trust. At a time when the public’s confidence in the news media is so low, the best solution is to keep the standards high, as well as the wall between reporting and commentary.”
Great advice. I plan to pass it on to my students.
(Thanks to Mom Moments blogger Emilie Mullins for tipping me off to Ms. Muller’s blog).