Matters of Trust in Journalists

To the –multiple-choice– question of what factors have led to the loss of the public’s trust in journalists, the majority of respondents answer, on the one hand, that “the media serve interests and people have identified journalists with the media they work for” (78.5%) and, on the other hand, that “journalists have developed controversial relations with political power” (60%).

For the same question, they also choose to answer that journalists “do not do their job in an ethical way and with professional conscience” (39.5%) and that they “have not risen to the occasion at important circumstances” (33.5%), such as the coverage of the recession in Greece, the pandemic, etc.

Responses related to the attitude of the public, such as that people are easily influenced by (online) rumors that are not a product of journalistic work (20%), that they are manipulated by a few journalists who do not practice the profession properly (17.5%) or that they are not properly educated (10%), receive lower selection rates.

9% of the respondents noted that “journalists do not deal with issues that really interest the public”, while 6.5% consider the public to be biased.

Furthermore, allowing up to three choices, when asked which factors would contribute to regaining public trust in journalists, the majority of respondents answer that the media need, on the one hand, to stop being interfered with by political power (63%) and, on the other hand, to be more interested in journalistic content and less interested in profit and/or serving other interests (42%).

Subsequently, 36% of journalists believe that professionals themselves need, on the one hand, “to do their job ethically and with professional conscience” and, on the other hand, to be more concerned “about the accuracy and validity of the information they publish”.

Factors such as “publishing/broadcasting more stories that really matter to people” (12%), educating the public (9%) and stories always being signed (8.5%) are less popular.

“Nothing will make people regain their trust” note 6% of journalists.