Public Perceptions of Media Increasingly Negative

by lisa ~ September 21, 2009

Sept. 21, 2009 - A new report by the Pew Research Center for the People & the Press shows that the American public’s assessment of the accuracy of news stories is now at its lowest level in more than two decades. The center is an independent, non-partisan public opinion research organization that is sponsored by The Pew Charitable Trusts.

Pew noted that only 26% of people said news organizations were “careful that their reporting is not politically biased” compared with 60% who believed news organizations were politically biased. “And the percentages saying that news organizations are independent of powerful people and organizations (20%) or are willing to admit their mistakes (21%) now also match all-time lows,” Pew added.

Perhaps the public’s negative perceptions are driven by the source of the news they consume. For the first time, Pew found that more people (42%) got most of their national and international news from the Internet, not newspapers (33%). Even worse, it found that 71% got most of their national and international news from TV. But when it came to local news, 41% continued to turn to newspapers.

While newspapers have a long history of publicly examining their coverage decisions, it’s not the same with broadcast media, never mind blogs. Rare is the broadcast outlet that has an ombudsman, someone who handles reader complaints about news coverage. ESPN, National Public Radio, and PBS are three exceptions.

Unfortunately, budget pressures are forcing newspapers to eliminate the position. Stephen Pritchard, President of the Organization of News Ombudsman and the so-called Readers’ Editor of London paper The Observer, noted recently that “14 US newspapers that have dissolved their ombudsmen’s posts in the past year.” According to a blog by the World Editors Forum, they include The Sacramento Bee, the Minneapolis Star Tribune, The Baltimore Sun, the Fort Worth Star-Telegram, the Orlando Sentinel, The Hartford Courant, and The Palm Beach Post.

But apparently some newspapers don’t care about correcting actual mistakes, much less debating the tone of a reporter’s coverage on some distinct topic. Harvard University journalism professor Scott R. Meier recently blogged about his own research, which showed that 97% of all errors in daily papers went uncorrected. In other words, The Washington Post’s discovery earlier this year that it had hundreds of outstanding requests for factual corrections may not be unusual. That might account for Pew’s finding that 63% of respondents say news stories “are often inaccurate.”

What does this mean for flacks? First, prep journalists as much as possible. Provide all necessary information in advance of an interview, and respond to every phone call and email in a timely fashion. Waiting days - or even hours - to respond to a query may mean that you miss a reporter’s deadline and, hence, the opportunity to correct an error prior to publication.

But anyone who’s had an irate client knows that errors still occur despite anyone’s best efforts. So what’s a flack to do? Explaining the ups and downs of interacting with journalists - misquotes and mistakes go hand-in-hand with glowing reviews and attention-grabbing headlines - may help manage clients’ expectations.

Lisa Tibbitts  is the principal of Tibbitts Creative, a public relations and marketing service that emphasizes corporate communications. She has an extensive background in financial services and an MBA in marketing. Follow her on Twitter: http://twitter.com/FinancialPR.

###