Gallup: Americans' Trust in Mass Media Sinks to New Low.
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  Gallup: Americans' Trust in Mass Media Sinks to New Low.
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Author Topic: Gallup: Americans' Trust in Mass Media Sinks to New Low.  (Read 885 times)
ProgressiveCanadian
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« on: September 15, 2016, 03:48:35 PM »



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Virginiá
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« Reply #1 on: September 15, 2016, 03:55:56 PM »

That's a shame. A weak and untrusted media allows corruption to flourish. Seems like the whole system is caught in a self-perpetuating cycle of corruption and distrust, and it is only getting worse.
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Hermit For Peace
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« Reply #2 on: September 15, 2016, 04:10:30 PM »


So I wonder what it's gonna take to change all this?
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Sumner 1868
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« Reply #3 on: September 15, 2016, 04:32:02 PM »


So I wonder what it's gonna take to change all this?

Hopefully it's irreversible. I just wish even more people would tune out.
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Virginiá
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« Reply #4 on: September 15, 2016, 04:41:24 PM »


So I wonder what it's gonna take to change all this?

This is a long-term problem probably, hermit. Things will inevitably get way worse before they get better. Just look at the sorry state of our media right now. It has completely sold out, and on the fringes you have awful people like Limbaugh brainwashing people with propaganda. Fringe stuff on both the left and the right inspire these purist ways of thinking that do not work in an electorate with diverse opinions and such. As long as news/other media is so hungrily profits-driven like it is now, then it will continue to be low quality and hated.

On top of that, for govt, we have money flooding into elections like no tomorrow, with comparably small amounts of wealthy people tipping downballot elections in the directions they want. We can't begin to fix the entire system without first getting money out of politics one way or another. It has to be done, or it will continue making politicians unresponsive to the people and thus the people will continue to distrust the government.

Everything is just so screwed up.


Hopefully it's irreversible. I just wish even more people would tune out.

Then who holds anyone accountable? Politicians will be even more brazen with their corruption as no one pays attention even when they are caught. Sometimes it may not seem like it matters even now, but the media does help in this regard Sad
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Antonio the Sixth
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« Reply #5 on: September 15, 2016, 04:53:57 PM »

Surprised that, even in the Iraq War days, Democrats remained more trusting of the media than Republicans and Independents. Maybe they're too trusting, actually.
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ProgressiveCanadian
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« Reply #6 on: September 15, 2016, 04:59:14 PM »

Surprised that, even in the Iraq War days, Democrats remained more trusting of the media than Republicans and Independents. Maybe they're too trusting, actually.

That's exactly the problem.
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Sumner 1868
tara gilesbie
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« Reply #7 on: September 15, 2016, 05:43:11 PM »


So I wonder what it's gonna take to change all this?

This is a long-term problem probably, hermit. Things will inevitably get way worse before they get better. Just look at the sorry state of our media right now. It has completely sold out, and on the fringes you have awful people like Limbaugh brainwashing people with propaganda. Fringe stuff on both the left and the right inspire these purist ways of thinking that do not work in an electorate with diverse opinions and such. As long as news/other media is so hungrily profits-driven like it is now, then it will continue to be low quality and hated.

On top of that, for govt, we have money flooding into elections like no tomorrow, with comparably small amounts of wealthy people tipping downballot elections in the directions they want. We can't begin to fix the entire system without first getting money out of politics one way or another. It has to be done, or it will continue making politicians unresponsive to the people and thus the people will continue to distrust the government.

Everything is just so screwed up.


Hopefully it's irreversible. I just wish even more people would tune out.

Then who holds anyone accountable? Politicians will be even more brazen with their corruption as no one pays attention even when they are caught. Sometimes it may not seem like it matters even now, but the media does help in this regard Sad

Shouldn't that be the supposed job of the courts? And if not them then the voters?

Besides, a politician exposed by the media for corruption isn't necessarily going to receive punishment. Richard Nixon is the most obvious example, but he's hardly alone. And society is becoming disturbingly tolerant of political corruption in general thanks to cultural nihilism - many flagrantly obvious crooks have been reelected. The media also has a history of helping cover up the corruption of politicians and other elites. We are not blessed with a neutral press. Our television and radio stations are mostly owned by corporations, and newspapers have an obsession with conforming to the consensus of the hour.

I will say, however, that "social media" is infinity times worse than mass media.
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Virginiá
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« Reply #8 on: September 15, 2016, 05:49:44 PM »

Shouldn't that be the supposed job of the courts? And if not them then the voters?

It should, but investigations by the media at least used to bring a lot of issues to light. I hope that one day investigative journalism on this stuff makes a resurgence. Also at times, various levels of govt try to sweep issues under the rug and only get addressed when the media makes a big deal of it. Voters also can't vote them out if they aren't being informed of that stuff, either.

But also agree mostly on your other points. However I would argue that corporate ownership can be fixed by breaking them up, though, easier said than done. They would surely use their position as the media to tar and feather whoever tries. Hopefully someone does it anyway at some point.
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Stranger in a strange land
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« Reply #9 on: September 15, 2016, 06:20:18 PM »

The Trump supporters shouldn't be happy about this, considering how much the media falls for his stunts and sensationalism at every turn and holds him to an entirely different standard than other candidates.
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Person Man
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« Reply #10 on: September 15, 2016, 06:47:37 PM »

It is actually a good strategy to do things that the media doesn't like because it is so unpopular. I think that is part of Trump's appeal. The problem at this point is that we are moving to a period of history where the only thing that matters is what is believed. Basically by the media becoming less trusted, what actually happens becomes even more inaccessible and the truth becomes even more disbelieved.  There has to be a way to make the truth and what is popular to believed closer together. Maybe in this day and age, we don't need media anymore because we have so much first hand access to information. This makes one's job harder but if done properly, can bring people closer to the truth.
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Virginiá
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« Reply #11 on: September 15, 2016, 08:18:55 PM »

Maybe in this day and age, we don't need media anymore because we have so much first hand access to information. This makes one's job harder but if done properly, can bring people closer to the truth.

It can, but it can also push people away from it. It seems to be resulting in more and more bubbles where people only get news from places that fuel their own confirmation bias. People themselves are segregating themselves like this IRL to a degree as well. You have some people walking around thinking, "those liberals have to be wrong because everyone I know agrees with me!", and vice versa. Then you have to worry about 3rd-rate online outlets pushing opinions as facts and other garbage/baseless stuff.

I don't know. I do worry about what the future holds for this country, though. The facts are there for anyone to see, but it seems like people are more and more divorcing themselves from reality because they don't like what they are seeing.
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Person Man
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« Reply #12 on: September 15, 2016, 08:45:47 PM »

Maybe in this day and age, we don't need media anymore because we have so much first hand access to information. This makes one's job harder but if done properly, can bring people closer to the truth.

It can, but it can also push people away from it. It seems to be resulting in more and more bubbles where people only get news from places that fuel their own confirmation bias. People themselves are segregating themselves like this IRL to a degree as well. You have some people walking around thinking, "those liberals have to be wrong because everyone I know agrees with me!", and vice versa. Then you have to worry about 3rd-rate online outlets pushing opinions as facts and other garbage/baseless stuff.

I don't know. I do worry about what the future holds for this country, though. The facts are there for anyone to see, but it seems like people are more and more divorcing themselves from reality because they don't like what they are seeing.
Eventually,  we will all have to cope with reality. How do you see that working out? How we deal with a world with smaller more homogenous communities will be "interesting".
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Associate Justice PiT
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« Reply #13 on: September 15, 2016, 10:03:46 PM »

That's a shame. A weak and untrusted media allows corruption to flourish. Seems like the whole system is caught in a self-perpetuating cycle of corruption and distrust, and it is only getting worse.

     I intensely distrust the mass media, but I do still relate to the idea here. I wish that we could have more faith in the media to accurately report the facts, but they don't really merit it anymore.
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Frodo
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« Reply #14 on: September 15, 2016, 10:05:46 PM »

This is what happens when the press (especially televised media) puts more emphasis on entertainment than on old-fashioned journalism in an attempt to get more viewers and subscribers. 

Just get back to the basics. 
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