A large portion of the American people seem to have taken the adage "Don't believe everything you read" to heart. A recent Penn survey reported that only 45 percent of the general public believes everything printed in newspapers and reported by TV news. The study -- conducted by the Annenberg Public Policy Center -- found a large gap between the mindset of journalists and that of the public at large. The survey sampled 1,500 people 18 and older and 673 journalists -- including owners, executives, editors, producers and staff journalists in both print and broadcast media and local and national organizations. According to researchers, the study was designed to "measure the divide between those who work in the media and those who consume it." Both groups were asked various questions about ethics, basic rights and political views of both themselves and of news organizations. Researchers found a large divide on issues ranging from perception of media bias to the speed with which news organizations make corrections. However, the most glaring differences between journalists and the general public were seen in their trust of the facts themselves. Although 48 percent of the laymen surveyed believed that news organizations were often inaccurate, only 11 percent of journalists believed the same. Kathleen Hall Jamieson, director of the Annenberg Public Policy Center, believes that this is a discrepancy that can be resolved but must be dealt with by those in the media. "Either the journalists and editors are out of touch with reality," Jamieson said, "or there is a communications problem." Geneva Overholser, co-editor with Jamieson of The Press -- a collection of essays regarding the role of the media in a democracy -- noted the burden the survey results place on journalists. "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," Overholser said. To a question about the ability of news organizations to correct their own mistakes, 74 percent of journalists responded that they believe mistakes are quickly reported and corrected, while only 30 percent of the public agreed. However, a majority of both groups said that situations like former CBS news anchor Dan Rather's reliance on forged documents in a story have been corrected sufficiently. Senior communication major Sarah Morrow commented that the media generally fall short in their effort to make corrections to false statements. "When corrections are printed, how many people read them? They could be on page 3 in the bottom left even for a front-page story," Morrow said. The survey also asked the respondents to rate the ethics of various professionals -- teachers, lawyers, politicians and government officials as well as journalists. The results showed a similar break between the journalists and the general public. While both groups believed that teachers had the best ethics of the five professions, the results were split on journalists' ethics. While 32 percent of journalists said their own profession had very good ethics, only 7 percent of the public believed the same.
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Different wavelengths
Below are a sampling of the questions asked in Annenberg's survey of professional journalists and adults not in the media. In general, do you think news organizations get their facts straight or do you think their stories and reports are often inaccurate? Get the facts straight: General public: 45% Journalists: 86% Generally, how would you rate the ethical practices of journalists - very good, somewhat good, somewhat bad, or very bad? Somewhat bad or very bad: General public: 22% Journalists:
