IF you are in denial, you can never move forward and improve. The trust and credibility of the global press/media is an abomination. In some nations, convicted serial killers deserve more trust. Belief that the world is being run by lizard-people may have more credibility.
It would be acceptable if this were limited to nations on the bottom of the Reporters Without Borders Press Freedom Index like Cuba (171), Vietnam (175) or North Korea (180). The Philippines (136) ranks higher than Thailand, India, Mexico and Singapore.
Edelman is an American public relations and marketing firm, founded in 1952. As of 2018, it is the largest public relations firm in the world by revenue. Its PR side has been in the spotlight for serving “controversial” clients (Wal-Mart) and issues (oil company environmental damage). But that is what PR firms—like lawyers—get paid to do.
However, the annual Edelman Trust Barometer—in its 21st year—is widely cited. The 2021 Edelman Trust Barometer consisted of 30-minute online interviews between October and November 2020.
“The media is not doing well at being objective and non-partisan.” Sixty-one percent globally agreed. But the strongest agreement came from Japan (80 percent), South Korea (77) and Colombia (76).
The next time someone talks about “fake news,” remind him or her of this. An Edelman survey question: “Journalists and reporters are purposely trying to mislead people by saying things they know are false or gross exaggerations.” Fifty-nine percent of those surveyed agree. How bad is that? “Our government leaders are purposely trying to mislead people by saying things they know are false or gross exaggerations.” Fifty-seven percent agree.
The press/media is fooling itself. It is not the politicians or social media that is destroying their trust and credibility.
“The State of Southeast Asia: 2021 Survey Report” was published by the Asean Studies Centre last week. The survey asked 56 questions, from “What are the top 3 challenges facing Southeast Asia?” to “Which country is your favorite holiday destination?”
But the only one of interest to the local press/media was, “What is your assessment of your government’s response to Covid-19 thus far?” The overall response from the Philippines was 6 percent “Strongly Approve,” 19.4 percent “Approve”, 35.8 percent “Disapprove” and 17.9 percent “Strongly Disapprove.” Fair enough.
However, of the 1,032 online survey respondents, only 67 came from the Philippines—the smallest number except for Lao PDR, Brunei Darussalam, and Cambodia. From Vietnam there were 175. Usually, a public opinion survey is careful about using a representative demographic. In this case of the 67, 40 were from “Academia, think-tanks or research,” 13 from government, and shockingly—in our opinion—only one person from the business community.
The news story from an online source of “Fearless reporting” read: “More than half of Filipinos participating in the Asean Studies Centre survey thumb down the Duterte government’s response to the Covid-19 crisis.” Not one mention was made of the number of Filipino respondents or the demographics. The story did report that, “In Vietnam, an astounding 96.6 percent gave the Communist Party of Vietnam a thumb’s up.” The story did not report that “an astounding” 38 percent of the Vietnamese respondents work for the government.
Other news sources followed along with little if any analysis of the actual survey. “Philippines has lowest government Covid-19 response among Asean countries, and some are not surprised.” “In Asean, Pinoys least satisfied with gov’t response to Covid-19 crisis.” “Filipinos most disapproving of gov’t pandemic response in SEA, survey finds.”
Is there any question why—according to Edelman—59 percent say, “Most news organizations are more concerned with supporting an ideology or political position than with informing the public”?