Exploring the Relationship Between Trust in News and Impartial Journalism

• In Event: News Bias, Representation and Accountability

Abstract

Many countries have seen sharp declines in trust in the news in recent years (Newman et al., 2020). However, we currently know little about what has caused these declines, and our understanding of what factors influence trust in the news—and how this varies by country—remains limited. Given that many of those with low trust often attribute it to what they see as biased coverage (Newman and Fletcher, 2018), it is possible people’s attitudes towards impartiality are linked to trust in the news.
In recent years the growth of digital technology has dramatically increased the sheer volume of available news and informaton (Neuman, 2016). This has similtaneously created more opportunities for people to selectively expose themselves to news and information aligned with their own point of view, while also making it easier to encounter news and information that challenges it. For decades, impartiality has been seen by many as a key tenet of the journalistic profession in many countries (Hanitzsch, 2007; Tuchman, 1972). But for some practitioners, the easy availability of diverse and sometimes nuanced perspectives raises difficult questions about the value of impartialty, particularly if realized as the dualistic indexing of elite perspectives (the “strategic ritual of objectivity” that can result in false balance or he-said-she-said journalism). For other practitioners, impartiality has never been more precious, as people worry about polarization and many struggle to make sense of complex debates and contradictory information.
This study takes a mixed-methods approach to investigating whether people’s preference for “news with a point of view,” in contrast to “impartial” journalism, is associated with different levels of trust in the news.
The first part draws on in-depth practitioner interviews conducted in 2020 with 83 journalists and senior managers in newsrooms across three countries (Brazil, UK, and USA). Our interviews show how practitioners themselves can be divided and conflicted. Some think news with a point of view is the best way to meet the industry's challenges; others defend more conventional notions of impartiality as crucial to sustaining trust. The two views are not always in absolute opposition, but reflect different stances. Practitioners in the first group argue that presenting a point of view is welcome both from market and transparency perspectives. They claim to offer news that fills a gap in the public sphere by providing valuable analysis and interpretation of complex events. For them, presenting a point of view means sticking up for values and being forthright about news judgments, which builds trust and loyalty. Conversely, journalists in the second group say that moving away from impartiality is not sustainable nor desirable. They suggest journalists' first mission is informing citizens and letting them form their own opinions. For them, news with a more explicit point of view constitutes a breach of professional journalistic norms and is not economically feasible because it would be impossible to please all audiences all the time.
The second part focuses on news audience perspectives, using survey data from the Reuters Institute’s 2020 Digital News Report (N = 80,000), which spans 40 markets across the Global North and South. In this part, we descriptively explore factors associated with individual-level preferences for news with a point of view, with a particular focus on the associations between trust in the news overall and trust in the news people actually use. The analysis will help shed light on whether the different, partially conflicting theories of how trust in news identified through our practitioner interviews are backed up by audience data. In this second part, we examine some of the many possible mechanisms underlying associations between trust and preferences for news with a point of view. For example, people with higher trust in the news might welcome the idea that it promotes a range of points of view because they trust it will be done responsibly and to the benefit of society. But conversely, it is also possible that people with higher trust might prefer impartiality because they trust that journalists will fairly balance competing views. These mechanisms likely play out differently depending on the nature of the media system
In the final analysis we combine the interview and survey data to explore possible differences in how journalists and citizens think about trust in the media. Our findings will therefore have implications for how perceptions of news organizations’ coverage impact their relationships with audiences and for challenges around building trust while adhering to conventional journalism practices.

Authors

• Camila Mont'Alverne, University of Oxford

• Sumitra Badrinathan, University of Oxford

• Amy Ross Arguedas, Reuters Institute for the Study of Journalism

• Benjamin Toff, University of Oxford

• Richard Fletcher, University of Oxford

• Rasmus Kleis Nielsen, University of Oxford