{"id":38432,"date":"2025-01-03T13:45:00","date_gmt":"2025-01-03T13:45:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/?p=38432"},"modified":"2025-01-05T16:57:15","modified_gmt":"2025-01-05T16:57:15","slug":"mainstream-media-faces-a-credibility-crisis-my-journalism-research-shows-how-the-news-can-still-serve-the-public","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/mainstream-media-faces-a-credibility-crisis-my-journalism-research-shows-how-the-news-can-still-serve-the-public\/","title":{"rendered":"Mainstream media faces a credibility crisis \u2013 my journalism research shows how the news can still serve the public"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Anita Varma<\/a>, The University of Texas at Austin<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThe news media is the least trusted group among 10 U.S. civic and political institutions involved in the democratic process,\u201d the polling firm Gallup concluded in a 2024 analysis<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Despite news organizations\u2019 pledges to provide fact-based reporting<\/a>, and ongoing investments to build trust<\/a>, people across the political spectrum in the U.S. are unconvinced<\/a> of mainstream media\u2019s self-described credibility<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The category \u201cmainstream media\u201d refers to flagship national newspapers like The New York Times, cable news channels like CNN and Fox News and news networks like ABC or NBC and their local affiliates. Despite deepening partisan divides in the U.S, Pew Internet Research has found that this definition is consistent across Republicans and Democrats<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Mainstream media\u2019s credibility has been diminishing for years<\/a>. But the trend has attracted renewed attention from news leaders and analysts<\/a> since the 2024 presidential election, when many outlets again misjudged the electoral chances of President-elect Donald Trump.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I am a professor of journalism and media<\/a>, and I believe my research offers a way forward for journalism to build credibility: solidarity journalism<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What is solidarity journalism?<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Solidarity, as I define it, is a commitment to people\u2019s basic dignity that translates into action<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Since 2014, my academic research<\/a> has focused on the role of solidarity in journalism that represents marginalized communities<\/a> \u2013 like people who are homeless, face food insecurity or are the targets of violence. These are groups who cannot simply opt out of the conditions placing their survival and safety at stake.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Journalists who cover these populations and topics accurately, I find, approach their reporting in ways that set them apart from the majority of news coverage<\/a>. Specifically, when reporting in solidarity, journalists use newsworthiness criteria<\/a>, sourcing tactics<\/a> and framing styles<\/a> that are distinct from those typically used by mainstream media.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Few journalists, by the way, use the label of \u201csolidarity\u201d to describe their practices. Instead, my research shows, solidarity emerges in how some journalists do their reporting.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What is newsworthy?<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

The first question journalists are trained to ask themselves before proceeding is: \u201cIs this news?\u201d In other words, what makes a topic worth covering right now?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Journalists usually know their editors will be looking for a few simple criteria. A strong story pitch usually includes novelty and people with institutional power. It feels important when weighed against other events happening at the same time.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Often, a political leader\u2019s comments are what make an issue newsworthy, such as when President Joe Biden apologized in October 2024 for the inhumane conditions in Native American boarding schools<\/a> run by the U.S. federal government until the 1960s.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

When reporting in solidarity, however, journalists find stories newsworthy because people\u2019s basic survival and safety are at stake<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A story published by Outlier Media on March 8, 2023, illustrates this approach. Headlined \u201cDetroit tenants are organizing and making bigger demands<\/a>,\u201d the piece focuses on tenants\u2019 struggles for simple needs like functioning sewage systems, hot water and electricity.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The president may never issue an apology for a city neglecting its poorest residents. And journalists reporting in solidarity don\u2019t wait for elite recognition. They believe that when people\u2019s basic dignity is at risk, it\u2019s a topic worth reporting.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Handling of sources<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Sources are the people, institutions and data that journalists use to provide evidence in reporting.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In the worst cases, marginalized sources describe reporters as hostile, transactional and extractive<\/a>. Such journalists \u201cparachute in<\/a>\u201d to cover a big story and grab quotes and wrenching photos of tragedies<\/a>. Then, they disappear as abruptly as they arrived<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Journalists reporting in solidarity do their jobs differently.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

They show up on the scene of an unfolding issue not only for the story but for the people affected<\/a>. They spend time listening to people experiencing the issue<\/a> and return after a story has run to continue the conversation \u2013 particularly when the struggles persist<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Reframing the narrative<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Framing in journalism refers to how a story is told. It isn\u2019t possible for journalists to include every possible source or every aspect of an issue. Frames shape who and what fits into a story<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Commonly, news framing focuses on how officials define an issue.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Take, for example, an ABC7News story about homelessness from July 25, 2024. Headlined \u201cBay Area mayors respond to Gov. Newsom\u2019s order to remove homeless encampments<\/a>,\u201d it is framed around how officials reacted to a mandate to remove homeless encampments from city streets \u2013 not on the residents of those camps.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"A
Solidarity journalists center the perspectives of the people living the news, like residents of razed homeless encampments. AP Photo\/Rich Pedroncelli<\/a><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Solidarity framing prioritizes the people who are living an issue<\/a> that places their basic dignity at stake<\/a> due to factors beyond personal circumstance or bad luck. Solidarity framing defines issues<\/a> based on what people experiencing these struggles know \u2013 and know they need \u2013 through firsthand experience.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A solidarity framing of California Gov. Gavin Newsom\u2019s order to remove homeless encampments sounds like this: \u201c\u2018We gotta be somewhere\u2019: Homeless Californians react to Newsom\u2019s crackdown<\/a>.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This story, published in CalMatters on Aug. 12, 2024, accounts for what people affected by tent bans are experiencing firsthand. It illustrates the impossible situation facing people who have nowhere else to go<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In solidarity framing, official sources aren\u2019t judge and jury. Instead, marginalized people\u2019s direct accounts shape coverage of what they are going through.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

True public service<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

My interviews and interactions with journalists since 2014<\/a> find that a subset of mainstream journalists quietly do solidarity reporting already. They tell grounded stories of marginalized people\u2019s struggles and prioritize those firsthand accounts over the messaging promoted by people in power.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I believe this model should be central to how journalism envisions its purpose and public service. And I\u2019m not alone.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Black people<\/a> have for centuries called for more factual reporting<\/a> that reflects their actual lives, because mainstream news has long criminalized and dehumanized their communities<\/a>. Trans people<\/a> have similarly called for more on-the-ground reporting as a way for journalism to improve its credibility.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Many other groups, from progressive activists<\/a> to conservatives<\/a>, have indicated that they would find a solidarity reporting approach more credible than current reporting practices.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Mainstream media \u201ccould do a way better job of bringing in \u2026 folks who are actually on the ground experiencing this in real time and who were fighting to stop this in the first place,\u201d one social justice activist told me in 2023<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Conservatives, meanwhile, object to what they see as distorted coverage of their communities<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThere\u2019s a lot of different kinds of conservatives, and they just lump them all together as the right-wing extremists,\u201d said one conservative news reader in a study by the Center for Media Engagement<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Through solidarity practices, mainstream media has a chance to achieve what it has always claimed<\/a> to contribute to society: truthful reporting based on what is happening on the ground, to real people, in real time \u2013 and with real impact.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Anita Varma<\/a>, Assistant Professor, School of Journalism, The University of Texas at Austin<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

This article is republished from The Conversation<\/a> under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Anita Varma, The University of Texas at Austin \u201cThe news media is the least trusted group among 10 U.S. civic and political institutions involved in the democratic process,\u201d the polling firm Gallup concluded in a 2024 analysis. Despite news organizations\u2019 pledges to provide fact-based reporting, and ongoing investments to build trust, people across the political […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":56,"featured_media":38433,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[15534,8025,817,296,15533],"tags":[4469,785,1822,15883,885,891,886,860,5182,15884,789],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/38432"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/56"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=38432"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/38432\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":38451,"href":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/38432\/revisions\/38451"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/38433"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=38432"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=38432"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=38432"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}