A new report from the Pew Center for People and the Press suggests significant problems in public trust of the press in the United States. On nine of 12 negative indices studied since 1985, the survey of trust showed all-time marks.

That being said, the press remains more trusted as a source of information than are such other institutions as government and business.

The report found people trust their local sources of information more than they do national sources, and it suggested that the national perceptions were skewed by negative views about all-news cable television.

"Fully 66% say news stories often are inaccurate, 77% think that news organizations tend to favor one side, and 80% say news organizations are often influenced by powerful people and organizations," Pew said in summarizing the study. "As recently as four years ago, 39% said news organizations mostly get the facts straight and 53% said stories are often inaccurate."

Then again, when asked about their own news sources, Americans were far more kind. Some 62 per cent said their sources were accurate and only 30 per cent said the stories were often inaccurate.

Among the other findings in the poll of 1,501 Americans in July: television remains the prime information source; nearly one-quarter now get news from social media; people want their press to be non-political; most believe news organizations have professional intentions; equal numbers say the press helps and hurts democracy; and most support its watchdog role.

Hardly surprising but worth chronicling: A new United Kingdom study has found a decline in public trust of the broadsheet and tabloid press.

With the extent of the phone-hacking scandal much more evident, the poll suggested that only five per cent of Britons trust the tabloid journalists, while 41 per cent trust the broadsheet journalists. That level is down from seven per cent and 54 per cent, respectively, last November.

The YouGov survey for the University of Nottingham found that trust in British members of Parliament rose in the same period to 24 per cent from 17 per cent.

Earlier today, a Twitter hoax spread that CNN host Piers Morgan had been suspended pending an investigation of his involvement in the phone-hacking scandal. Some journalists reTweeted before one journalist determined the information was untrue. (Martin Bryant of TheNextWeb chronicles the episode.)

Reuters blogger Felix Salmon says this should not be a cause for deep concern. Twitter is the "new newsroom," he writes, where people can raise rumours and have them shot down, "no harm no foul." Just as journalists pass around gossip in a newsroom, he says Twitter can serve as a similar environment.

Salmon believes that the big accounts of organizations ought to be held to higher standards. "But for the rest of us, we’re conversing on Twitter just like we converse in real life," he says.

"People are human, they believe rumours, make mistakes, jump to conclusions. Twitter is just a healthy reminder of that fact," he concludes.

What do you think?

The new annual Gallup poll on institutional trust suggests U.S. media are regaining (albeit slightly) the ground lost.

Its poll of trust in newspapers and television found growth after years of all-time lows. Some 28% said they had a great deal or quite a lot of trust in newspapers and 27% said the same about television.

That number, though, lags considerably behind numbers as recent as 2003.

The biggest gains in approval came from 35- to 49-year-olds. Younger Americans expressed greater trust in television and less trust in newspapers. While Gallup says the new numbers are good indicators, it points to the volatility of young trust as a precursor of possible difficulties.

Newspapers and TV ranked 10th and 11th of the 16 institutions assessed.

Scott Rosenberg, the media critic and co-founder of Salon, writes in the PBS MediaShift Idea Lab that newsrooms have a credibility issue they can address. He notes that about half of all stories contain errors but only about three per cent of them are corrected.

He has some basic prescriptions to restore and redevelop trust:

1. Link out. Let people see what you've researched.
2. Show your work and let it be iterative.
3. Let people help you identify and fix mistakes.

Rosenberg says four problems beset newsrooms in grappling with their shortcomings: tools and workflows aren't up to the task, there is denial and avoidance, readers are seen as adversaries, and the business is obsessed with the business.

How do you think media can more effectively deal with errors?

A report released today suggests Canadians continue to trust traditional sources of media.

A public opinion poll found nine in 10 Canadians found mainstream media trustworthy and reliable. It also suggests only one in four found social media similarly credible.

The survey was conducted by Angus Reid Public Opinion for the Canadian Media Research Consortium, an academic organization examining journalism issues.
 
It found that about one in three young Canadians valued social media for trust and reliability and that overall Canadians were far more comfortable with professionally edited content than wiki-type refinement. Most also believed that professional media were better equipped to deal with critical issues than were citizen-based entities.

"The established news brands continue to be the gold standard for verification," the survey concluded. While younger Canadians were more optimistic about the possibilities for citizen-based media, even they registered a high degree of support for traditional sources.