As a member of the press, being critical is probably not looked upon favorably among many of my peers, but a recent study released by Project for Excellence in Journalism, a research group, offered some frightening numbers for those in the industry.
Less than 50 percent of Americans trust the journalism industry in general, and that number is rapidly declining (it has gone down 11 percent in less than six months already). While many critics are quick to point fingers at the media for favoring one political position or another, the reasons are actually much less complex than those tired debates about which ideology a particular company or publication subscribes to. Many journalists, quite simply, have lost the ability to relate to normal people. Here is one of the funnier quotes from the study:
“Journalists see themselves, as Humphrey Bogart put it in the movie Deadline USA, as performing ‘a service for public good.’ The public doubts that romantic self-image and thinks journalists are either deluding themselves or lying.”
The reasons for this disconnect are abundant. As newspapers have strived over the last few years to reformat and bring in more readers to help declining circulation numbers, look no further than some of the inane premises that have been trotted out.
In order to attract a stronger base readership, newspapers have tried to reach out to younger audiences, especially among 25-35 year olds. What has their brilliant “market research” told them about readers in this age group? Apparently, that we are idiots, but we are idiots who live on the edge dude!
It is generally easy to find sections meant to appeal to this crowd in a newspaper: they are called things like “Edge” or “Xtreme,” apparently because we live crazy lives and we hate correct spelling; they use lots of bright colors, because shiny things get our attention; articles are centered on video game reviews and the brave people who design the clothes Paris Hilton wears, because young professionals certainly do not read books or care about people who are truly trying to make the world a better place. Some papers even turn these sections into a tabloid-style pullout, so that readers can rest easier reading something that looks more like US Weekly than the Washington Post.
When brain-moron corporate newspaper execs launch ideas like these into their publication, many people accuse them of deliberately trying to dumb down society. I don’t give them that much credit. They genuinely think that most people in that younger demographic play X-Box all day and possibly squeeze in an hour or so each week to watch Laguna Beach or The Real World on MTV.
Do young people do those things? Sure we do. But does that define our generation? I sure hope not. People, no matter what age, are going to read a newspaper for only one reason: to find out information about their community, state, nation or world, depending on the expertise of the particular publication. Celebrity gossip and other worthless drivel have an audience to be sure, but no one is going to solicit the opinion on fashion news from some nerdy print reporter who thinks black jeans qualify as dress pants in a newspaper when millions of television personalities, bloggers and magazine writers have already cornered the market on such topics.
Journalism suffers from the same malaise as other large industries that begin to face more and more competition from outside forces. The disconnect occurs when that competition compels media outlets that they must change or add components in order to stay viable.
You would never see People Magazine write an article chronicling the impact of global warming. Why, then, do we need to see The Detroit Free Press wasting space on the Britney Spears/Fed-Ex divorce?
Readers turn to a newspaper for news, imagine that. Trust will come back to journalism when companies begin to realize that loyalty they enjoyed in the past was a result of a commitment to gain expertise in certain content areas and deliver that knowledge to readers on a daily or weekly basis.

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