Mistrust of Media Rises Among Blacks
African Americans’ distrust of the news media is on the rise, outpacing that of whites, according to a survey by the Pew Research Center. The study, released last week, shows that overall distrust of the media is the highest its been in the 20-year history of the survey.
“We show that the share of blacks in the survey who said that news stories are often inaccurate is at 68% up from 47% the last time we did they study in 2007,†says Michael Dimock, assistant director at Pew Research Center for People and the Press.
The number of non-Hispanic whites who said stories in the news are often inaccurate jumped six percentage points to 62% over the same two year period. Blacks are also distrustful when it comes to biases in the news with 69% saying press tends to be skewed when reporting on political and social issues, this is jump of 15 percentage points since the survey was last conducted in 2007.
Reasons behind such a sharp rise may be partly due to the President Barack Obama. “Criticism of the press has increased substantially among African Americans and its linked to a similar increase among Democrats,†Dimock says. “When your party or candidate is the president, that crucial press coverage is often seen as overly critical or bias.
Just 29% of Americans say that news organizations generally get the facts straight, while 63% say that news stories are often inaccurate. In the initial survey conducted in1985, 55% people surveyed said news stories were accurate while 34% said they were inaccurate.
This Pew Research Center biennial study sample size consisted of 1,506 people and was conducted in July.
— Renita Burns