Wednesday, May 25, 2005
2005_03_press_vs_public_5_24_05_pr.pdf (application/pdf Object)
2005_03_press_vs_public_5_24_05_pr.pdf (application/pdf Object)
Public and Press Differ About Partisan Bias, Accuracy and Press Freedom, New Annenberg Public Policy Center Survey Shows The American public disapproves only narrowly of partisan journalism, splits about evenly on whether news organizations usually get their facts straight, and narrowly accepts the idea that the government can limit the right of the press to report a story, according to a national survey conducted for the University of Pennsylvania’s Annenberg Public Policy Center. But journalists, including reporters, editors, producers, news executives and owners, were also surveyed for the study which measured the divide between those who work in the news media and those who consume it. They heartily disagreed with the public on all those issues and many others. "This study reveals a worrisome divide between the public's view of journalism and journalists' own views of their work. If journalists do indeed believe that what they do is valuable, fair and ethically sound, it's past time they began to put that case more effectively to the public," noted Geneva Overholser, co-editor of a new Oxford University Press book, The Press. Sixteen percent of the 673 journalists who were polled and 43 percent of the 1,500 members of the public surveyed said it was “a good thing if some news organizations have a decidedly political point of view in their coverage of the news. Eighty percent of journalists and 53 percent of the public said it was a “bad thing.”
Public and Press Differ About Partisan Bias, Accuracy and Press Freedom, New Annenberg Public Policy Center Survey Shows The American public disapproves only narrowly of partisan journalism, splits about evenly on whether news organizations usually get their facts straight, and narrowly accepts the idea that the government can limit the right of the press to report a story, according to a national survey conducted for the University of Pennsylvania’s Annenberg Public Policy Center. But journalists, including reporters, editors, producers, news executives and owners, were also surveyed for the study which measured the divide between those who work in the news media and those who consume it. They heartily disagreed with the public on all those issues and many others. "This study reveals a worrisome divide between the public's view of journalism and journalists' own views of their work. If journalists do indeed believe that what they do is valuable, fair and ethically sound, it's past time they began to put that case more effectively to the public," noted Geneva Overholser, co-editor of a new Oxford University Press book, The Press. Sixteen percent of the 673 journalists who were polled and 43 percent of the 1,500 members of the public surveyed said it was “a good thing if some news organizations have a decidedly political point of view in their coverage of the news. Eighty percent of journalists and 53 percent of the public said it was a “bad thing.”
