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Telephone: +044 01275 390 552
A question of trust
The explosion of multiple channels is usually cited as the primary reason why media relations no longer dominates the PR communications mix as it once did.
There‘s no doubt that the advent of social media and the demand for free online content has contributed massively to the waning of journalists‘ influence, but a recent YouGov poll reveals another disturbing trend.
According to the newly-published research the public‘s trust in journalists has been significantly diminished.
In fact, if it is accepted that the public‘s trust in politicians, scarred forever by things like the expenses scandal, has eroded over the last few years then in comparison journalists‘ reputations have fallen off a cliff.
Starting early in 2003 YouGov asked people from time to time how much they trust different groups of communicators, decision-makers and service providers to tell the truth.
In almost all cases, trust in the media is down. The decline is greatest (33 points) for journalists who work for ITV News, but also alarmingly for those at the BBC (21) and national broadsheets (24). They are all still trusted more than politicians from any party, but not as massively as they were seven years ago. Trust in tabloid journalists is down just 4 points, but as their original trust rating was already a dire 14 per cent, scope for further decline was limited.
However the same research revealed that consistently local people are more trusted than their national leaders: thus GPs, teachers, police constables and local MPs have always scored more highly than those who manage them.
So, it appears, when it comes to public trust localism is where it‘s at. Frustratingly though YouGov‘s pollsters did not go as far as to ask people their views on local journalism but, if they had, I suspect the “trust” figures would have been significantly higher for the local media compared to their national counterparts.
So, while media relations is no longer the “be all and end all” it once was, it should still be a vital component for any communications strategy as a means of reaching out, via a tried and trusted medium, to communities and organisations.
The explosion of multiple channels is usually cited as the primary reason why media relations no longer dominates the PR communications mix as it once did.
There‘s no doubt that the advent of social media and the demand for free online content has contributed massively to the waning of journalists‘ influence, but a recent YouGov poll reveals another disturbing trend.
According to the newly-published research the public‘s trust in journalists has been significantly diminished.
In fact, if it is accepted that the public‘s trust in politicians, scarred forever by things like the expenses scandal, has eroded over the last few years then in comparison journalists‘ reputations have fallen off a cliff.
Starting early in 2003 YouGov asked people from time to time how much they trust different groups of communicators, decision-makers and service providers to tell the truth.
In almost all cases, trust in the media is down. The decline is greatest (33 points) for journalists who work for ITV News, but also alarmingly for those at the BBC (21) and national broadsheets (24). They are all still trusted more than politicians from any party, but not as massively as they were seven years ago. Trust in tabloid journalists is down just 4 points, but as their original trust rating was already a dire 14 per cent, scope for further decline was limited.
However the same research revealed that consistently local people are more trusted than their national leaders: thus GPs, teachers, police constables and local MPs have always scored more highly than those who manage them.
So, it appears, when it comes to public trust localism is where it‘s at. Frustratingly though YouGov‘s pollsters did not go as far as to ask people their views on local journalism but, if they had, I suspect the “trust” figures would have been significantly higher for the local media compared to their national counterparts.
So, while media relations is no longer the “be all and end all” it once was, it should still be a vital component for any communications strategy as a means of reaching out, via a tried and trusted medium, to communities and organisations.