Media Distrust

(Source: Trolino)

  If mass media lost its trust and credibility from general public, this serious problem will totally destroy the media and make it no value at all. In year 2011, when an earthquake happened in Japan, mass media in Japan lost their trustworthiness. The reason could be they used unfiltered reports and information to fill the gap when facts from government are incomplete. The ability of media to pursue facts is low and reporting skills is poor, these also contribute to the issue too. At that time, people rather go for new media to obtain information from overseas media and other expertise. (Kobayashi, 2013) This issue have brought a big impact to Japan mass media as they seemed as not creditable until now.

         Based on my opinion, mass media is a great influencer. Message that deliver is able to reach many people out there, thus the truth of the information is very important; it not only affect one people but thousand, millions of people. Thus information disseminate must be true, up-to-date and reliable. White included several code of ethic that related in this case in his article. Such as, truth is the first duty of the journalist. Journalist shall report original facts that have been collected and should not disseminate inaccurate information. (White, 2008)

         White (2008) stated that: “Developing and working to ethical standards and codes is the first step in building public trust in journalism”. Mass media should not deliberately use inaccurate information to fill up the information gap. If the media careless disseminate untruth information, it should be clarify it as early as possible. By admitting and explaining themselves it will help people to think that the particular media is still creditable. (White, 2008) I believe this is what Japan’s media did not do and cause general public to totally distrust them.

         Although some people will suggest that certain level of distrust is healthy. (Kobayashi, 2013) It allow us to interpret ourselves and have more thought rather than believed blindly what media had published. However, I would still think that as a media you have to be deliver truth messages.

References:

1. Kobayashi, G, 2013, in Japan, a wave of media distrust post-tsunami. [online] Available at: <http://www.pbs.org/mediashift/2013/04/in-japan-a-wave-of-media-distrust-post-tsunami105> [Accessed 11 June 2013]

2. White, A, 2008, the ethical journalism initiative. [online] Available at: <http://ethicaljournalisminitiative.org/pdfs/EJI_book_en.pdf>  [Accessed 11 June 2013]