Nieman reports, the public and journalists: They disagree on core values

Nieman Reports article by Esther Thorson and Mike Fancher

 By Esther Thorson and Michael R. Fancher 

In considering the modern relevance of Walter Williams’s “Journalist’s Creed,” it was well documented that people who aren’t journalists held increasingly negative attitudes toward news organizations. For example, The Pew Research Center for the People & the Press reported in 2004 that from 1996 to that year there was a sharp fall in the percentage of those who reported that they believed most of the news reporting in newspapers and on television. What follows are some specific findings:

• “Your daily paper” fell in the percentage of those saying they believed what was published from 25 percent to 19 percent.
• With USA Today, the number dropped from 24 percent to 19 percent.
• “Your local TV news” experienced a fall from 34 percent to 25 percent.
• With network news, the decrease was 31 percent to 24 percent.

Pew reported this year that only 43 percent of people surveyed thought civic life in their community would be hurt “a lot” by the closing of their local newspaper.

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