Impact of Media and Technology On Public Trust in The Media. Communications & Media.

Impact of Media and Technology on Public Trust in The Media
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Impact of Media and Technology On Public Trust in The Media
On November 6, 2020, The Guardian had "Fox News sucks!': Trump supporters decry channel as it declares Biden wins" as the headline for an article. According to the article's author, Trump supporters had been vocal about their displeasure with a network that has long been associated with the President. Fox News had announced Joe Biden as the winner in the majority of the states for the past few days (Beckett, 2020). However, the announcement angered the president's backers, with some declaring their distrust of the news channel, with others claiming to have shifted their allegiance to media outlets that are even further right. The article covered one of the increasingly controversial issues in our contemporary society: the trust and mistrust in news media. Why is it becoming so difficult for the public to agree on what is true as depicted through media outlets? The Covid-19 pandemic resulted in increased news consumption across the world. The pandemic has seen an increase in TV news audiences, and people are spending more time on news websites in search of reliable sources of information about the virus, its socioeconomic effects, and the direction of the 2020 U.S. elections. Technology has pushed people to believe that they have first-hand access to 'accurate' information, and they keep on fighting about it.
Reporting, framing, and presentation of news information influences the level of perceived trust for the source. The outrage depicted via social networks, opinion columns, and broadcast interviews is not simply a reaction to the information, but to the way it is framed and reported (Tandoc Jr, Lim, & Ling, 2020). The impact of such outrage is even much worse if directed to the mainstream media. The public expects broadcasters and journalists to be neutral and is prone to scrutiny if they incorporate personal perspectives in issues of public interest. Social networks provide avenues for interactive sessions where people express diverse opinions about an issue of interest. In this case, journalists are engaged in intense unscripted and real-time discussions, which may create troubling moments in their thinking (Schranz, Schneider, & Eisenegger, 2018). Nowadays, reports and claims can be easily dismissed as biased or inaccurate whenever an independent expert or journalist is perceived to break their neutrality to reveal hidden prejudices.
The structure and organization of modern media technologies have instilled a suspicious mindset among the public. The audience is instinctively suspicious of anyone claiming to report or describe a real event fairly and objectively. It is the new public mood which is attributed to the 'informal' appearance of digital platforms, smartphones, and the complex information surveillance mechanisms that define our current newsfeeds. Availability and easy access to multiple sources trigger a legitimate curiosity to find the motivation behind a given media story (Strö...