As we learned from reading our textbook – or at least from reviewing the midterm in class – news media are not held in high regard by the public. Research by the University of Leeds, our text points out on page 3, shows that “while people rely heavily on the media for information, most of them distrust the media’s motives and operational methods.”
They feel the news organisations are ‘just looking for a story’ and are driven primarily by circulation and audience figures. The scepticism affected all media, but mostly the press, and the tabloid press in particular.
That was more than a decade ago. Are the news media more or
less trusted now? Well, if a new study titled “Bias, Bullshit and Lies” is
anything to judge by, public trust in the news media has likely sunk even lower
in the past 10 years. It was released last week by the Reuters Institute for
the Study of Journalism at Oxford
and polled almost 18,000 people in nine countries (U.S.,
Germany, UK,
Ireland, Spain,
Denmark, Australia,
France, and Greece)
on their trust in news and social media. Respondents were asked if they agreed
with statements like “the news media does a good job in helping me distinguish
fact from fiction,” and were invited to share their reasons in an open-ended question. (Note the faulty subject-verb agreement, which shows that even scholars get this one wrong all the time. It should be “the news media do a good job.”)
Two-thirds of respondents cited concern about “bias, spin, and hidden agendas” as a reason they don’t trust what they read, notes the NiemanLab website at Harvard. Concerns about political biases were high in the U.S., where accusations of liberal media bias have been a core rhetorical strategy among Republicans for decades and have spiked even higher under Trump with his allegations of “fake news.” More than a third of respondents who distrusted news media cited concerns about political bias. This was highest on the political right, who were three times more likely to distrust the news media than those on the left.
Three responses featured in the report: “Liberal media is full of bullshit and lies,” “Fox News keeps it fair; CNN tells us left-wing lies,” and “They are so far to the left, they might fall off.”
The study (PDF)
found that people have a “complicated relationship” with social media. While
they have become a key source of news for many, just 24 percent of respondents
said social media do a good job of helping them “separate fact from fiction.”
Just over a third of respondents (35 percent) who distrust social media cited a
lack of fact-checking and the prevalence of opinion as the biggest reasons.
Interestingly, of those that do trust what they read on social media point to
the inherent benefits of the social platforms, which make it easier to
encounter a range of voices that together can often give a fuller picture of a
story and reveal gaps in knowledge. “I can view multiple sources on the same
issue or event,” noted one respondent in the U.S.,
“and there are people critiquing the articles and posts, so I can see where
some things were skewed or reported narrowly.”
A summary of the report’s findings on the Reuters Institute website noted that lack of
trust in the news media and perceptions of a decline in journalistic standards were
highest among young people and those on low incomes. The study found this is “largely
a function of a model that allows anybody to publish without checks, and
algorithms that sometimes favour extreme or contentious content.” The study is part
of the Reuters Institute's 2017 Digital News Report. It argues that news media
need to differentiate themselves more from information that has not gone
through the same professional checking processes. “This means increasing the
quality of news and minimising the clickbait that can end up deceiving and
annoying consumers.” It argues that journalists and news publications should be
far more open about their biases and clearer about distinguishing news from
opinion and news.
These findings should be a wake up call for journalists, platforms and regulators. Rebuilding trust will require all interested parties to work together. We need better incentives to create and showcase more accurate and more trusted content.
Malta,
of course, was not among the countries included in the study. Do you think that
trust in the news media here is higher or lower than in the countries studied? Are
newspapers, radio, or television more or less trustworthy? What about news websites and social
media? Are they helping or hurting? Explain your answers.
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ReplyDeleteIn my opinion, the news media is trusted far more in Malta than the countries that the study mentions. This is due to the fact that Malta is a very small island, and in such a small community, word goes around fast. Moreover, hearing news on the radio and television feels almost as if you are hearing it from a neighbour so this perhaps contributes in making it a tad easier to trust the source. In fact, the national 'Times of Malta' newspaper is still popular around the island and is sold everyday, not only because of the large interest in Maltese politics around the island, but because it is trustworthy enough for people to read their favourite articles and segments often.
ReplyDeleteHowever, despite the above argument, I do believe that social media is seen to be less trustworthy than television, radio, and the newspaper. The insane amount of clickbait by using absurd or exaggerated headlines is almost inevitable in this day and age, thus, after being lured into a disappointing article, people would tend to trust the source less or maybe even look for validation from other (even foreign) sources. In addition, the tenancies of online sources to employ bad spelling habits seems to further contribute to the decrease of trust for online sources. This could make the reader feel as if they are reading an article from someone unprofessional and ill-informed, resulting in them questioning the source further.
I'm sure you mean "tendencies" and not "tenancies".
DeleteAccording to a Eurobarometer survey(mentioned int the first link below) only ¼ of the population trust the press, meaning that the majority of Maltese people do not think that local media tell the truth when reporting events. This study makes the Maltese ranked 4th least Europeans likely to trust journalists.
ReplyDeleteThis survey speaks for itself one might think, i.e compared to the other countries studied, the trust in local media is quite low here in Malta. However, one has to take into consideration that Maltese media is majorly owned by the two main political parties- be it television stations, radio stations, newspapers and online websites. I personally think that the issue of not trusting the media in Malta arises from the simple fact that people are conscious that the propaganda of the two political parties is immersed within the news, and by default a degree of bias will obviously be present. Thus, news in Malta can never be reported neutrally(truly so since objectivity is quite impossible to reach). In fact, following Daphne Caruana Galizia’s death as reported by The Times of Malta, news organizations such as: The Guardian,BBC,The New York Times, La Repubblica, El País and Süddeutsche Zeitung called for investigation regarding the independence of Maltese media from political parties.
Notwithstanding the survey result, I do believe that the Maltese still follow the media and are somehow(consciously or unconsciously) influenced by it.
The new phenomenon of online news and social media opened a new window for citizen journalism. We must understand that this novel news spectrum, although it allows space for freedom of speech and personal opinions, might not be the best way to report news(as in facts). Moreover, I do believe that news must be reported by professional,trained journalists who know their job very well and write or report stories within a certain context. With this I mean that not every citizen has the ability to report news effectively. In fact I do think that we need more “neutral” journalists to report news locally so as to restore the public perception on media.
These are two links from where I got my information:
https://www.timesofmalta.com/articles/view/20170602/local/maltese-more-likely-to-trust-government-than-the-media-study-shows.649583
https://www.timesofmalta.com/articles/view/20171105/opinion/The-state-of-our-journalism-Petra-Caruana-Dingli.662251
Very well argued and nicely backed up with research.
DeletePersonally, I think that Journalism is overly trusted in Malta, especially when concerning politics. As most people know, politics are a huge deal in Malta, and most label today’s journalism as heavily polluted by politics. It is not always trustworthy, as for example the newspapers concerning political parties sometimes twist the truth, write politically biased arguments, and use the media as methods to trash talk the opposite party. This doesn’t just include newspapers, as even radios, websites and TV programmes are used for this purpose. Nevertheless, the trust the majority of the Maltese citizens put in journalism is definitely higher than the countries that are shown in the study. Anyone can be an online journalist, as anyone with internet access can post on the internet. What this means is that not all news websites and social media posts are true or have any factual knowledge as anyone can write anything on the internet, be it true or fake news.
ReplyDelete"People have a complicated relationship with social media," says Ricardo Bilton in his article. What Bilton means is that people are unknowingly being influenced by the news that reaches their ears and that once the trust they have is broken, its not easy to build it up again.
Online news is actually making more harm than good, as due to false news, hidden agendas and click bait, people are losing their trust more and more. On the other hand, news heard on the radio or TV, is seen as more trustworthy as they are coming from a more reliable and familiar source. But this trust can quickly evaporate into nothing, once it is broken.
Another excellent comment.
DeleteAlthough in reality, journalists should be balanced when asking questions and delivering the news to the public, in my opinion, Maltese journalists are totally unbalanced. The reason is that due to the two main political parties which are influencing the country, most of the Maltese citizens are divided. The Times of Malta of 2nd June 2017 stated that "The survey, the field work for which was done last March, found that 52 percent of Maltese trusted the government more than the media. This is 12 percent above the EU average." This is not right, given that the media is the fourth pillar of democracy. Notwithstanding the survey result, I believe that the Maltese nevertheless follow the news and are interested in how it is reported.
ReplyDeleteEven though it is not political, media are still misleading the audience in such cases. Case in point was the murder of a customer in Attard, who went to purchase from a shop and someone shot him to death. tvm.com.mt of the 18th November 2017 stated that they were informed that the murder target appeared to have been the upholsterer, and the murdered customer was innocent and was at the wrong place at the wrong time. On the other hand, a local political TV station declared that the customer has been killed on purpose. Who is telling the truth?
Good, but remember to write in complete sentences. It should be " A case in point was the murder of a customer in Attard."
DeleteThe question of trust in news media here in Malta is a difficult one to answer, as I believe opinions on the matter are very much split. I think a main factor also seems to be the type of news being reported, and when it is being reported. What I mean by this is that during an election period, for example, many seem to suddenly believe that everything written by their opposing party’s news outlets is fake. With this being said I do think that trust in news media in general is higher than the countries studied, and this could very well be due to our small geographical size. Everyone knows everyone here, and while I’d like to believe we wouldn’t kick you out of the country for lying, news media still must take that extra care, if only to keep up appearances with their peers.
ReplyDeleteWith Regards to the question on what media is most trustworthy, I believe that it is subjective. While newspapers are seen as more formal than radio or television, it really depends on what radio station you’re tuning in on, or what television show you’re watching. Being such a small country most just repeat what others say before them anyway.
The news websites and social media case is also dependant on who you ask. In my own opinion clickbait and ad revenue has done a lot of damage to the credibility of news media in general, however everyone has a website nowadays and if I trust a newspaper, radio show, or television programme, then I’ll trust their website. Social media is great for many things, and although it helps get news around fast, I’d still double check on a proper news website before blindly trusting a post I read on facebook.
Another great answer, but remember to capitalise proper nouns like Facebook.
DeleteThe news and media in Malta is partially or almost totally owned by political parties who obviously push there beliefs toward the public using these sources of communication to reach a wider audience. In Malta and the Maltese people believe what the news tells them more than other countries and it's less the issue of trust but more size of country in which we live in. If CNN which focuses more on American news or Fox say some news about a political issue about America the people who come together to discuss it are mostly close neighbors or families who mostly have the same political beliefs and tastes who either agree if it is fake or not and they can't go to the place in question to see the news happen for themselves. For example if the news in America says that San Francisco is bombarded with illegal immigrants, people from New York who read this news aren't going to fly to San Francisco to see it for themselves but instead believe that this is true or not through their beliefs and political agendas. It is different in Malta if the news says that in Marsa there is a big amount of immigrants living in it a lot of the Maltese people to commute pass from there and can see it for themselves, and in Malta everyone knows everybody so if a politician or a group does something wrong you hear it from the people before you hear it on the news. In Malta we believe the news more then in other bigger countries, but in Malta in my opinion
ReplyDeletethe Maltese see the news not as fake or untrustworthy but exaggerated. Baudrillard who is a sociologist and studied the news and media calls this Hyper reality, which is essentially an exaggeration of what really happened. For instance if one political party makes a mistake, the other opposing political party exaggerates this and turns it into a world crisis. In conclusion for me the Maltese people believe the news but they keep in mind the exaggeration that the reporters may put into it to show that their side or belief is the best.
Good comment, but watch your spelling. It should be “push their beliefs.” Also make sure you write in complete sentences and don’t dangle your participles. It should be “more the size of the country in which we live.” And Baudrillard’s dead, so he was a sociologist.
DeleteFrom my perspective, I think that Maltese people have too much trust in their media because from such a young age they were taught to seek answers in others and not be self reliant. Maltese put a great deal of trust when it comes to printed media (Times of Malta, Malta Today, Malta Independent), including radio and television. When it comes to social media, Maltese tend to put more trust in online sources. These websites don’t exactly promise credibility but they do get the message across faster.
ReplyDeleteNonetheless, in a Eurobarometer survey the Maltese did not think that the local media was telling the truth when reporting events resulting in 1 out of 4 trusting the media. In this survey it was also found that the Maltese were twice as likely to trust the government to to tell the truth rather than the press. In fact 51% trust the government while only 32% trusted the written press, 38% the radio and 47% television. However, saying all this, all forms of media are harmful. As long as man is susceptible to corruption, he shall forever be dangerous.
Good, but I only count 186 words. Yes, I counted every one of them. You also commit several sins against style, such as not spelling out numbers under 10 and using the percent symbol instead of the word.
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ReplyDeleteAccording to the research used in this blog, 38% from the United States trusts the media. In a research of the Eurobarometer I found that in the Netherlands, only 16% trusts the online social networks. This number, measured in 2016, is 3% less than the number measured in 2015. This agrees with the research used in this blog, according to which the trust in media is sinking. The Netherlands is the second highest country in Europe when it comes to not trusting the social media. I count myself definitely with the 72% that doesn’t tend to trust the social media.
ReplyDeleteHowever, I do often have the tendency to believe television and radio. I found that most of the Dutch people agree with me, a lot tend to trust the radio, 75% , and television, 64 %. I feel this way because these media have a clear chief in charge who can be hold responsible. In the Netherlands it is very clear when it comes to television and radio, who is in charge and it is not uncommon to call them to account. With the social media it is not clear who is writing what, everybody can write whatever they want without having to give account. It allows everybody to write and disseminate information. I feel that the Netherlands is a little less trusting when it comes to the social media than other countries, because of all the education provided of the subject. Every big news organisation in the Netherlands gives tips in order to recognize so called ‘fake news’, which makes the Dutch people very aware of the subject.
Research Eurobarometer:
file:///C:/Users/Admin/Downloads/eb86_media_en.pdf
Are you in my Journalism 1 class? If so I will need your name in order to give you a mark on this assignment. If your identity is not obvious from your username then you will have to sign your comments. I did some detective work, but I didn't recognize your cactus blog. And I can guarantee you that link won't work because it is to a file on your computer.
DeleteIn my opinion, I think that when distributing news in Malta people tend to rely on it too much. But do we actually trust the media? This is a difficult question to answer as everyone sees news media from a different perspective. Many Maltese citizens seem to be influenced of what their political party news outlets write. Additionally, most of the people are satisfied of the government system and according to the studies of a Eurobarometer survey, it resulted that Maltese people trust the government more than the media. This study showed that the Maltese do not think that the local media tells the truth when reporting such events. In fact, Maltese were ranked as the fourth least likely Europeans to trust journalists.
ReplyDeletePersonally, I think that trust in news media in Malta is way higher than in other countries. This is because Malta is a small country where everyone knows everyone therefore news media gets distributed immediately and directly from one to another. Although not all news media is trustworthy, one has to take into consideration how fake news damages trust in media. For example, on Facebook it is more likely to tackle fake news and for that reason, one has to go to a more genuine news website before believing everything. When distributing news, I believe that most of the people tend to rely more on the traditional news sources including newspapers, radios and televisions than other forms of social media. Traditional news sources are seen as much more formal. On the contrary, when reading news on a website the audience are not easily convinced of what they're reading. All in all, I can say that social media does more good than harm and it is helping us to instantly record and spread news faster than ever.
Information on Eurobarometer survey:
https://www.timesofmalta.com/articles/view/20170602/local/maltese-more-likely-to-trust-government-than-the-media-study-shows.649583
Language usage: You are influenced by something but convinced of something. It is redundant to write “Maltese citizens” or “Maltese people”. Just write “Maltese” like you did after that. The Eurobarometer study has been linked to and mentioned by previous commenters.
DeleteI feel that trust in media in Malta is not cut and dry. One of the main reasons for this is the amount of control that is given to the two major political parties, Labour and Nationalist, with regards to media platforms. Each party owns a tv and radio station, social media platforms and newspapers. Most people nowadays know that if you read a story on the Nationalist paper then you will see the story only through their perspective and it will most likely attempt to tarnish the Labour party, this works vice versa also. These media organisations are heavily biased and therefore cannot be trusted to provide a full and honest story, which a journalist should aim to do.
ReplyDeleteOn the other hand there are the national media platforms that should be unbiased and now we even have bloggers who also report news in Malta. Unfortunately, many murmurs about the journalists for these media organisations being Labour or Nationalist are evident and must have an effect on our trust in them and how they report an event.
The Eurobarometer survey did uncover some scary information about trust in media in Malta. Only one in four people in Malta trust the media while 52% of the people surveyed said that they trust the government. It is very easy to understand from this survey that the government trumps the media. I cannot say that is a surprising factor for the Maltese as a large part of our culture and identity is politically based.
According to Petra Caruana Dingli in order for this to change "a wider range of journalists must provide accurate, fair and investigative content. Major restructuring of media ownership in Malta is necessary to achieve this."
https://www.timesofmalta.com/articles/view/20171105/opinion/The-state-of-our-journalism-Petra-Caruana-Dingli.662251
https://www.timesofmalta.com/articles/view/20170602/local/maltese-more-likely-to-trust-government-than-the-media-study-shows.649583
I know the political parties own TV (note this is always capitalised) and radio stations, and the Maltese language newspapers, but do they also own social media platforms? I think of these as things like Facebook and Google. Perhaps you mean it in the context of blogs and websites, which of course reside on the Internet, which nobody owns. The point you make about political partisanship is a good one, however. You have again linked to the study reported in June, as several other students already have. In the real world, you would be devoured by trolls for this. It is important to not only address the blog entry but to also keep in mind the previous comments. After a while, of course, the comments will begin to mostly address other comments and even ignore the original post, so it becomes a digital conversation that grows organically. This is what you should be doing instead of just addressing the original question. Add to the conversation. And check to see if your point has already been made or your link has already been posted. I see that you posted your comment five minutes after the previous comment, so it is likely you didn’t see it. What I do is write anything lengthy in Word for fear of losing it online. Then I copy and paste it into the comments after refreshing the page to check and see if anybody has made my point. Or you could simply post it and then learn the awful truth, as I suspect Alessia did before deleting her comment posted right after yours and then revising it.
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ReplyDeleteNews media in Malta is probably depicted a bit different than other countries. For such a small country we really have a lot of news media platforms. For Example, Malta has a very large number of TV programmes for such a small country. The plain truth in Malta is that the news media is very politically biased, and that people choose which news media to follow according to their political ideology. In Malta the two main political parties dominate the local media and any news that occurs is somewhat depicted differently.
ReplyDeleteFrom my point of view I think there are three types of how people see news in Malta: 1. Those who actually believe everything 2. Those who do not think that any news is true 3. and those who see all perspective of the news and analyse the information being given. How much people actually trust the news is probably unanswerable, because people in Malta trust their own source of news media and do not believe other sources, which I do not understand, so I do not really know if the answer would be a yes or a no.
Here's a tip for the final exam. It is usually better to come up with an answer and argue for it rather than to write that the question is unanswerable and that you “do not really know if the answer would be a yes or a no.” What’s your best guess? What information are you taking into account? The idea of these types of questions, of course, is to examine your knowledge. The process is us probably more important that the product.
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ReplyDeleteIn Malta, journalism is most trustworthy when politics is not involved. Reports regarding accidents, worldwide news and sports are usually reliable and the facts are proven right. But when it comes to politics, the truth is bent according to which party it favours. The two major political parties have their own television station, radio channel and newspaper, so listening and reading one of them means you will only get one side of the story. Malta is so small that it is dominated by politics, for example in the news, the main stories are all on politics using at least half the time.
ReplyDeleteMaltese believe more news reported on television, radio or newspaper than on social media. This is simply because people don’t trust websites and most probably check other sources to confirm the report. In my opinion, it is all about familiarization. People tend to believe more the news reported by a station or channel that they are used to, since news websites have only been introduced this generation. Although, I believe things will change as the new generation rely more on the information provided by the internet (social media and websites) as it is more accessible and less time wasting.
Good answer, but watch that old subject-verb agreement. It should be “as the new generation relies more on the information provided by the internet”.
DeleteI believe that in Malta the news media is far more trusted than in other European countries, both because of the country's size but also because of the amount of available news we have on hand. Taking the example of Daphne's murder case and the breaking news that came along this week of her murderers being caught. The news story was posted on every news platform imaginable and reading through an amount, all of them were recording the same facts.
ReplyDeleteOn a daily basis I go through a few news stories posted by Maltese news agencies and I also go through a few British agencies as well, and comparing and contrasting the two together I noticed that Maltese stories tend to not have as much click bait compared to the national ones. This leads me to believe that Maltese agencies aren't as consumerist and attention seeking as national ones, either because anything can easily be exposed or because Malta is late for the party.
Regarding the differences between the written news, radio and television, I believe they are all somewhat on the same level of trustworthiness. In fact a lot of people tend to listen to news on the radio, read the news on the paper or online and then later that night watch the news broadcast on their favourite Maltese channel. It would be deceiving however to not mention that various media outlets in Malta are actually owned by political parties. Undeniably they will be biased regarding news that speaks about politics. Their positives might be exaggerated whilst their negatives, hidden, or justified as to not ruin their reputation.
I think social media and online news in Malta is just a clash of varied opinions, some good whilst others outrageous. People are so opinionated you see fights breaking in the comments section on a weekly basis. This I believe both supports and hurts the media. Generally people manage to expose a few details the journalist might not have been aware of or mentioned in the news piece. They also tend to describe the opposing view of the news story, letting the reader become aware of both sides and better at making a decision regarding the view they support or do not agree with.
Another very good answer, but be careful about convicting people before they are found guilty in court. It should be “her alleged murderers being caught.” You probably won’t get in trouble for writing that in a blog comment, but if you did it in the newspaper you could cause a mistrial by prejudicing the right of the accused to a fair trial, which could see them walk free. You will learn more about this when we talk about Media Law.
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ReplyDeleteWhen it comes to trustworthy news media in Malta, I believe that it is not to be trusted so easily as most popular news media platforms are tied to the two main political parties, and so the reporting that happens, usually leans in agreement to the party’s motives. In addition to this, the Maltese population relies heavily on these news outlets and so, are effortlessly manipulated by the agenda of each political party.
ReplyDeleteAlthough Malta is not included in the study that was referred to in the article, it is somewhat on par with the rest of the countries, especially the US and the UK, as both new medias are influenced by the country’s political parties. As I mentioned in Malta almost all news media outlets are run by political parties, whether it is TV, newspaper and radio.
The Labour Party has the Union Print Co. which produces ONE tv and its news, Radio ONE and three newspapers; “L-Orizzont”, “It-Torca” and “Kullhadd”. On the other-hand the Nationalist Party have Media.link Communication which produces NET tv and its news, Radio 101 and two newspapers “In-Nazzjon” and “Il-Mument”. And it is the case that those who watch ONE distrust NET, and those who watch NET distrust ONE.
For a neutral alternative there is TVM as a television station and The Times of Malta. That being said it has been argued many a times that these two media outlets usually lean towards whoever is in government in their reporting angles.
Social media helps in Malta in terms of helping news stories reach a large number of the population. With social media being a huge influence in Malta it even helps news websites to get more traffic on their sites by having on online presence such as that on Facebook.
Redundancy alert: “the reporting that happens”. Just “the reporting” will suffice. And of course media is already a plural, so you should never write “medias”. Otherwise a very good answer.
DeleteThe latest Eurobarometer showed that only a ¼ of the Maltese trust the media; but how accurate are these figures? The local scene is very much dominated by partisan politics, with the two major parties, Nationalist and Labour, having pre-eminence in the media. The figures of the report imply that ¾ of the population distrust all the media. However, the hardcore followers of either party are highly unlikely to distrust their respective news provider, irrelevant of the political bias. Having said that, many people are fully aware of the political agenda of the party-owned media, and subsequently tend to question the agenda of other media as well. In a politically saturated market such as Malta, audiences can evaluate the news of one medium in the light of several opposing others and hence easily identify biases.
ReplyDeleteThere is also a lot of fragmentation in the Maltese media, where there are many TV channels, radio stations and newspapers. This factor is leading to more news agencies which are less financed, and therefore less able to verify news. Media companies are not fact-checking their news, and professional, ethical journalism is being side-lined. Consequently, the “facts” being provided vary from one source to another and are distorted in the process of reporting. This is creating ambiguity as to what is the actual truth and is tarnishing the news sources’ credibility. Online news makes it easier for audiences to patch together the truth from different sources – however, the uncertainty persists as to what is an opinion, and what is a fact on the digital landscape.
The social media and online news are contributing to the decline in professionalism. The online landscape is prioritising speed, and accuracy is being neglected in the process. Although like TV, social media has the opportunity of verifying the facts through video evidence, the facts are still distorted through what information is given, and how it is given. This varies according to the agenda of the news provider, which is easily exposed in the dense local market. The Maltese are becoming increasingly dependent on social media, which is giving way to “citizen journalism”. Bloggers and opinion-leaders, such as the late Ms Caruana Galizia, are being depicted as journalists. In return, they are crippling the reputation of journalism by involving themselves in controversy in unethical and unprofessional ways. This is subsequently corrupting the credibility of the media and instigating distrust.
Excellent as usual, but NEVER use fractions like ¼ or ¾ in media writing. Spell them out as “a quarter” or “three quarters.” Strictly speaking, you should use a person’s first and last names on first reference, but in this context of course everybody knows exactly whom you are talking about. You could even just call her Daphne and everybody would know. Do you not consider her to have been a journalist? Do you think she was, as you write, “crippling the reputation of journalism” by acting “in unethical and unprofessional ways”?
DeleteRegarding Daphne's status; she was more regarded as a blogger by the public, although what she did was in fact journalism. Having said that, she was not limited by any ethical or workplace guidelines in what she reported, since she was an independent reporter. I did not want to bash Daphne's role in journalism by any means. Her reporting however was not strictly professional, and got her involved in controversy. So, the news she reported did not always seem credible, and since what she did was regarded as journalism, it tarnished other professional journalists' credibility in this respect.
DeleteGood points. Journalists at traditional media outlets cannot usually get away with calling people "crooks". They have to be a bit more subtle.
DeleteFrom my point of view, I still believe that despite the fact that surveys and interviews carried out in the Maltese Islands might indicate that there is a level of distrust between the news media and its audience, the Maltese population is still very much under the influence of what the news media whether it be radio, television, newspapers and more recently online articles have to say. This is mainly because of the fact that many of the newspapers run here in Malta are owned or are under heavy influence by the two main political parties. This might be one of the main reasons of distrust shown by, especially the later generations who are more open-minded, towards the forms of news media present in Malta. Having said this, there are very few news media which can be assumed to hold a strong level of unbiased news reporting and neutrality with one such famous example being the Times of Malta. The Times of Malta strives to remain as impartial as possible from the political biases which so heavily influence the media. A case which heavily showed that news reporting can never be truly impartial in Malta was the infamous gruesome murder of blogger Ms.Daphne Caruana Galizia.
ReplyDeleteProfessional journalism is not being helped by social media and online news either. Most social media tend to “rush” out their content and pay little to no attention to accuracy, a pillar which is ever so important in true journalism. Distortion in facts and use of clickbait are only adding to the present ambiguity which already surrounded online news. This will only add further fuel to the fire as to why trust in news media is decreasing by the day as it can only decrease the reputation which surrounds journalism. However having said this, there are still some positives which could arise from such an issue. Such a positive being that on online news articles and social media, individuals can criticise or even agree if they see fit with what the article is saying. The down side to this statement however, is that it usually leads to negative and scathing arguments in the comment sections due to people not tolerating each other’s opinions.
Your introductory phrase “From my point of view” is unnecessary, because you follow it with “I still believe,” which means the same thing. Omit one or the other and you will be a better writer. You have included the non-essential clause “whether it be radio, television, newspapers and more recently online articles” without enclosing it in commas, which makes that sentence hard to understand. Courtesy titles like Ms. are not usually used with first names, only last names. But we don’t usually use them at all. Downside is one word. Otherwise a very thorough and well thought-out answer.
DeleteIn Malta, news tends to travel fast due to the small size of our country. It is also important to note that we do not have as many newspapers or sources of Maltese media as, lets say, the US might have. Therefore, I believe that we are not as exposed to fake news as larger countries and if there is any crisis or scandal, most Maltese citizens will eventually find out the truth although it can cause chaos and confusion. Fake news does come about, and when it does it is usually from political newspapers and is based on a convenient selection of events that make things seem what they are not. Nonetheless, we are a small country and people are learning to not believe everything they read on these politically biased news websites. While websites and newspapers tend to be suspicious to many Maltese readers (especially after all the recent political scandals), radio and television are seen as less harmful. Aside from this, Social media sites such as Instagram and Facebook have also become very suspicious and untrustworthy due to the fact that one can never really know whose behind the screen and means of identification can be very hard. The issue of social media, I believe, is not just relevant to Malta but I’m sure many other social media users around the world feel the same way due to the fact that the users on these sites are international.
ReplyDeleteMalta may not have as many newspapers as the US, but it has many more on a per-capita basis, so I don’t know if that argument holds up. Malta has a population equivalent to a mid-sized US city such as Mesa, Arizona, which has one newspaper. Malta has seven. Why would the issue of social media not be relevant to Malta just because many other social media users around the world feel the same way due to the fact that the users on these sites are international. You have not really addressed the question.
DeleteBeing not from Malta my comment is based on the Italian situation. Italy, being a developed country, is based on a digital reality that reaches every environment present. Every information about the Italian situation is possible to be found on the Net. Thanks to new programs and applications is becoming always easier to create and share fake informations. The facts described become what really happened and so the reality changes: the fake becomes the truth and the unreal becomes the real. But where can we find the most quantity of fake news? The answer is easy, on the social networks and on the web. Despite this fact, certified by different studies, the Italians tend to trust most this kind of media rather than newspapers ( the percentage of people that is still reading them is decreasing), television and radio. People trust the media more than they should. Even because the media make the audience think that they always talk about the exact reality of the facts while it is not true: sometime omitting some insidious details changes completely the story. Or sometimes they exaggerate making everything bigger that it is. Since you don’t have effective proves that what is written in the article is 100 % true, you can't trust the information given without a verification. But for the most of the Italian population is not like this: they do not think that being sure that what they read is the reality of what happened is important, before sharing it. For them the appearance is more important than the truth. To appear is more important than to be.
ReplyDeleteInteresting.
DeletePersonally, I believe that in Malta news media is generally more trusted than in the other countries mentioned. This could be because of our geographical size or because of our general culture. Culturally we are a country who puts our mind and soul into politics, for example, and when it is election time we tend to go all out and express everything that bothers us about the opposing political party. The thing of the matter here is that you can only agree with one party, a Maltese citizen is unable to agree and disagree with both as you would be scrutinized for not picking a side. Because of this, Maltese people seem to adore the media which is in line with their supporting political party - subjecting them to a form or propaganda. Especially during elections Maltese citizens tend to overly trust the media which agrees with their political party, and distrusts the media opposing their political party.
ReplyDeleteWith regards to what medium is the most trustworthy, I believe it is all about perspective. Many people tend to trust newspapers more, as they’ve been in business the longest and are accustomed to thinking that newspapers are a good source of news. At the end of the day, it all depends on which newspaper it is and which radio and television station. Personally, I try my best to check my sources before believing any type of news be it from social media or a local newspaper.
Social media specifically seems to have a bad stigma around it when it comes to news – this is most likely because of click bait. A lot of people experience interest in a particular article, click on it and realize that the title doesn’t have to do anything with the article you just opened. Unfortunately money makes the world go round, and because of this one will always be hesitant in trusting social media and websites.
On the other hand, social media and websites are a great platform for news, as they reach a lot of people quickly. At the end of the day it is all subjective as it depends on which website or which article you are going to click on.
It is redundant to say “Personally, I believe”. It should be “a country which,” not “a country who”. Your writing needs improvement. A phrase such as “The thing of the matter here is that” is unnecessary and just bad writing. That sentence is a comma splice, which is two complete sentences in one. You answer the question well, however.
DeleteIn Malta, the problem is that this country is controlled by politics. Politics is our daily lives and most of the citizens have their own ideologies. (Which they try to impose on one another to change your beliefs) It is very difficult for a Maltese news agency to be unbiased. Firstly we have the party owned TV stations, which if you listen to their news you will either think that this country is a hell on Earth or the Garden of Eden. Then we have the 'unbiased' biased newspapers, which they try to show the reader that they are unbiased and totally fair but if one analyse their articles well certain biases are easily seen. There is also the national TV station it is owned by the public and is supposed to be impartial in its coverage. But reports have shown that this station also shows some subtle biases towards the government.
ReplyDeleteIn my opinion, I don't think that the locals are that annoyed by this problem, some of us will have to read 3 or 4 different articles about the same topic before make our own assumptions. I think that the problem is not fake news but in actual fact is the extremity of the news, this will change according to the bias of the newspaper. There is also social media where many Maltese like to write and share their opinions and that is where problems will start. People tend to start fights on Facebook whilst commenting on each other’s posts opinions and very creative ideas will emerge. I think Malta needs to have someone who is loyal to the population not to the Political Parties. We need someone who will push his/her own biases aside and write the actual facts.
An excellent answer with some writing hiccups, such as not spelling out numbers under 10.
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ReplyDeleteA special Eurobarometer study about Media Pluralism and Democracy actually found that only one in four Maltese trust the press. When comparing to other European countries Malta actually ranked fourth least likely to trust journalists. In particular, with respect to the different media sources television, radio and newspapers Malta ranked very low in terms of reliability of the said sources. We ranked particularly low for radio with only 52% of Maltese finding the radio a reliable source of information, when comparing to 93% of the population of Finland. On the other hand, Malta did not fair too bad when it came to social media which includes online social networks, blogs, video hosting websites. 35% of the Maltese people find these sources reliable compared to the 52% of Polish and the 14% of Swedes.
ReplyDeleteMy personal opinion for this low level of trust in the media is partisan politics. Some media houses in Malta are owned by the respective political parties. This is understandable and most people except a certain bias from these sources, however the problem is when other so called independent sources are being coerced by a particular political party. The editors or whoever decides which story to run is generally politically intertwined with a particular party so it is very easy to promote or kill a story as deemed necessary. It is for this reason that people in Malta have such a low trust in ‘traditional’ media sources.
Again, you are repeating a point already made by other commenters. The trolls would have fun with you. Use percent instead of the symbol. Otherwise a very good answer.
DeleteResearch taken by the Eurobarometer as published by the Times of Malta shows that the Maltese are more likely to trust their government over the media. This may explain the situation we have in the media locally whereby trust may be highly based on political bias. (https://www.timesofmalta.com/articles/view/20170602/local/maltese-more-likely-to-trust-government-than-the-media-study-shows.649583)
ReplyDeleteIn my opinion, Malta's news can be seen as a representation of its bi-polar political culture. This is where it gets interesting. It is common for the supporters of one party to follow the news supplied by the press affiliated with the said party and often ignore the other news outlets. The problem with this is that the news documented is always manipulated in the way which is most convenient for them. Often enough, if Nationalists are in government, Labour affiliated press will portray Malta as all doom and gloom for the next 5 years. If the Labour party wins, Nationalist media portrays Malta as all doom and gloom. This is declared bias. The followers are often very loyal to these stations, so to this portion of society, I would say trust in the media is very high compared to the global rates mentioned in this article. This trust is caused by the warped alternate realities portrayed by party politics. (http://www.niemanlab.org/2017/11/why-dont-people-trust-the-news-and-social-media-a-new-report-lets-them-explain-in-their-own-words)
Malta has obviously biased stations but also some which are meant to be national news, such as Times of Malta and The Independent. Times of Malta is often perceived as the un-biased news channel in Malta, but trust in this channel depends on what kind of news is reported. One often hears people say that the Times of Malta is biased, but, the lines seem to be blurred as to which direction, although I’d say a large percentage of the Maltese perceive Times of Malta as more biased towards the Nationalist party. Very often, The Independent is seen as having the same Nationalist bias but more extreme.
An interesting phenomena in Malta is how news spreads through word of mouth. Since Malta is a small island, news often spreads through circles of society. Sometimes these are stories that would not have been reported on the news. This kind of news is often seen as the most reliable, making the press seem less reliable if people ‘know’ details which have not been reported. Society forgets the responsibility of journalists to act ethically, researching and verifying the news before reporting it (whether the press actually acts ethically or not is another story). This kind of news is nowadays transmitted on social media, the new word of mouth by common people who often have no training whatsoever. But, most of society is not educated to tell the difference between a story from a well seasoned expert and a friend on social media.
When it comes to local news websites’ presence on social media, I think the same statistics apply.
This would be Liam from Formosa. You post the same link as many other commenters. By this point that is not necessary and you can just refer to the Eurobarometer study. I like your point about the bipolar political culture, but there should be no hyphen. Your point about word of mouth is also a good. All in all excellent, however.
DeleteJournalists and the media have been criticized since they exist. Everywhere. Not only in the nine countries that were published in the study "Bias, Bullshit and Lies" by Reuters Institute for the Study of Journalism in Oxford.
ReplyDelete"In 2017, we wanted to explore some of the reasons for this variation, so we asked a series of follow-up questions in nine countries. The countries were chosen to represent the range of countries in our wider survey: Denmark, Germany, Ireland, and Spain at the higher end of trust" - the study says.
I'm from Germany and I agree with this statement. The credibility in Germany is higher than in many other countries. Of course, we are overwhelmed by news, there are plenty of media: A lot of local newspapers in every city, international newspaper, (local) radio and television stations that deliver news. That is one of the reasons, why it isn't easy to trust everyone of them. But in Germany we have the opportunity to decide for ourselves which opinion is the right one. And which not.
Credible for me are definitely the public television and radio stations such as WDR, ARD and ZDF. In Germany we pay for it every month - if we want or not. That's why we expect serious and credible news. The highest credibility has the public radio with 74 percent and the public service television with 72 percent. Daily newspapers are also considered credible by a large majority of 65 percent. This is the result of a representative study on credibility of the media conducted by "infratest dimap" on behalf of WDR. In December 2016, a total of 1,000 eligible voters in Germany were interviewed.
When someone asks me which news media are non-credible for me, I would answer definitely boulevard newspapers. I think it is more about gossip and entertainment - not about news, which are so important for us. Even on social media platforms such as Facebook, I would be more cautious. On the one hand, there are a lot of Fake News. Everyone can express their opinions, publish articles, spread news on the Internet. But how do we know that they are really true? But on the other hand social media platforms give us the opportunity to receive and distribute news faster. Now, I think it's up to each one to decide which media they believe and trust or not.
Interesting and well written by Kathi . . . Lenger, I assume.
DeleteAs I am not from Malta, I will focus on the German situation. The trust in German news media is higher than in some other countries. I know I am about to do a big claim but let me explain it. According to a survey from the “Bundesverband Deutscher Zeitungsverleger” this year, Germany is the biggest market of newspapers in Europe and the fifth biggest in the world. We have 333 daily newspapers serving different types of readers. You can choose the newspaper that serves the information you are interested in. That’s why one can suggest that Germans generally trust the news media.
ReplyDeleteCompared to Malta, for example, the main difference is the following: Newspapers are not owned by political parties. That doesn’t mean that there is no orientation to a specific political direction, there sometimes tend to be some. Additionally, “news organisations (do not tend) to stick to a fairly similar range of news stories and approaches”, the study “Bias, Bullshit and Lies” from 2017 says. That’s different to the US or the UK, for example.
But there is one big problem nowadays that let some people distrust German news media: the "discussion of important issues such as the recent influx of immigrant". But in my opinion, newspapers owned by a political party are less trustworthy than those which were accused of shutting down discussions on issues like immigration. That’s why I am convinced that German news media like newspapers, radio or television are overall more trustworthy than in other countries.
Coming to the new kind of information source nowadays: news websites and social media. One can argue about the help or the trouble of it. The main danger lies in the spread of fake news because everyone can write his or her own thoughts without it being proved. News are not filtered anymore, they are not verified. Furthermore, everything has to be published as quickly as possible and therefore news can go viral without being questioned.
However, it is also an opportunity for more current news. I can remember the day after the several terror attacks in Paris in 2015 where 130 people lost their lives. The newspaper, I subscribed to at home, said that there were 28 people who died in total although this number rose to 130 during the night. Of course, newspapers have an editorial deadline. But imagine my grandparents who mainly relate to the daily newspaper: They believed there were only 28 people who died until I told them there were 130. Besides the danger of fake news going viral, social media and news websites are a factor to split the society because older people still prefer the traditional daily newspaper. That’s why social media is, on the one hand, helping technical-affined people to inform themselves more quickly but, on the other hand, splitting the knowledge of the society.
Another excellent German answer. I am not sure what "affined" means, however. Perhaps it is a German word. I would use "minded" in English.
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ReplyDeleteI believe that news media in Malta are not that trustworthy. People do not even trust independent media houses since they think that they are not that independent after all. All independent media houses are associated with one political party or another. In Malta, most people are obsessed with politics. Hence, political media houses tend to not publish a particular article since it could reflect badly on their political party. Therefore, some truth is not revealed by all media houses. Even when writing an article, some journalists tend to use particular words in the headline to deceive the reader. This is done to push people to read the news portal or to buy the newspaper.
ReplyDeleteOn the other hand, although people may doubt whether a particular news item is true or not, there have been people who contacted journalists and gave them a piece of information for them to publish it. In these cases, it is the journalists’ responsibility to follow the ethics and never reveal the source of information unless told otherwise by the source himself.
Social media has to be considered much less trustworthy since the person behind a particular source could manipulate, for example through Photoshop, a photo in the way they want. There have been many articles and photos that were shared on social media, and later they turned out to be lies. The purpose would be to frighten people for someone else’s benefit.
Some excellent points.
DeleteIn my opinion, I think that in Malta, It is easier for people to trust what they are being told. This is because, Malta is a small country in comparison to foreign countries and thus there are only a limited number of news sources giving out news. On our media sources, politics is the one dominant element. People living in Malta listen to news related to politics all the time, whereas in other larger countries, there is probably less focus on this element. The problem with Maltese news is that sometimes people only seem to trust the news that is being given out by the station of their respective political party and distrust and ignore the news written by the party in opposition. This tends to increase biases and prejudices against things that may or may not be true.
ReplyDeleteIt is truth that every Journalist should be neutral and avoid being biased,, but in Malta I believe that this is very hard since by associating yourself with a station that belongs to any political party means that as a journalist it will be harder for you to write against your own party.
With regards to social media, I think that they can sometimes be helpful and sometimes they can also be hurtful. Journalists write articles about a particular issue and publish them on Facebook. This helps us the reader stay informed and up to date with what is happening now. However, soon after an article is published ,you can always see people writing their comments which are sometimes badly written and offensive without any regard to whether what they are writing about is true or simply fake news. This may thus have an impact on the person about who the article is about and it can thus be hurtful instead of helpful.
It is redundant to say “In my opinion, I think”. Pick one or the other. It is also redundant to say “It is truth that every Journalist should be neutral”. Just say “every journalist should be neutral”. Note that journalist is not a proper noun and should not be capitalized. But you make some good points.
DeleteI have thought long and hard about these questions as there are many flip sides to this argument. The bigger concern linking to trust is that our news is filtered through a bias. Be it newspapers or television stations, look at one news article and the story will be unrecognizable in the other. This is because our media is mainly ruled by political parties and if they’re not, they’re accused of being so. This bias doesn’t only come from the media but also from the people, after all, as De Tocqueville says “Every country gets the government it deserves”. I believe this quote doesn’t only address the people in power but also the media, as the media reflects society.
ReplyDeleteWe cannot disagree on how much the media influences its society. However, over the past few months, it is becoming more and more of a prominent discussion. Has all this arisen from Trump’s “fake news” scandal? Or has it been an underlying worry that no one has dared to address?
This bias that I mentioned above has not developed over the past year but has been in Maltese society since newspapers started, maybe even before. Nevertheless, the notion of fake news and unreliable news papers is much newer than that.
There are two sides of the story here. On the one hand, there are people who only trust a certain news media because of its bias, knowing that they are in favour of their political party and are therefore blinded, not believing any other source. On the other hand, there are those people who try to find the most reliable news where there is no bias. This is difficult to obtain in Maltese news.
Nowadays, there is also the effect of news media and social media. Are they trustworthy? Or are they also filtered with a bias? The younger generation is mostly effected by this as they are the ones who are in contact with it on a daily basis. The question is, are they mature enough to differentiate unreliable news sources from trustworthy ones? Adults find this hard to do, let alone teenagers, who, at that age, are usually the most gullible.
The topics discussed in the article are constantly being tackled and thrown about by people trying to find a concrete answer. The reality is that one will probably never come to a concrete conclusion. There are so many overlapping opinions on trust, not only in Malta but all over the world.
Personally, I trust a news article when I know there is no bias. When I suspect there is one, I look at the rival article to weigh out the options. I never base my opinions on what I have read in one article. When I am aware of political bias, I research, I consult, I ask other people about what they think. Only then do I come up with a final opinion on whether this source can be trusted or not.
A very long answer that does not really address the questions. And I don't think de Tocqueville says that any more. He can't, because he's dead. So he said that, past tense. And yes, it's de Tocqueville. Be careful to spell names right. The younger generation would be affected, not effected by this.
DeleteThe geographical size of our country effects the way in which how news spreads in a few seconds around the whole country. Here most of the people trust the news media more than other countries.
ReplyDeleteMost people in Malta are partisan when it comes to politics. The two big political parties dominate the news everyday through their TV stations, radio stations, newspapers and their social media. People supporting a specific political party tend to trust most of the news published by their parties means of propoganda while strongly refusing to believe what their oppostitions media is publishing.
Although Maltese media also include other news agencies that are considered as independent some people might also perceive these independent newspapers as biased with a hidden political agenda.Most of the time the national TV and radio stations tend to be hijacked and organise their news according to what the government of the day wants although this isn’t said publicly is it clear in what news is given the most prominence.
Nowadays news is published much quicker through news websites and social media. Again political parties dominate these websites although there are some new independent news websites that are emerging and are being trusted more than those that are politically motivated. People with different political views tend to view and follow these websites that are considered as those that come up with innovative stories.
These websites nowadays seem more to be helping news agencies as they can give out news as quick as it happens. This took the competition to a whole new level as now news agencies not only have to give out facts but have to give out the facts in the shortest time possible.
We have a winner for Best Redundancy -- geographical size. How else is the size of a country measured? You could talk about population, but then you would not say size. You have also made the effects vs. affects blunder. You have also not really addressed the questions.
DeleteIn my opinion I believe that the majority of the Maltese population heavily trusts the news media compared to other countries. Being a very small island, news travels faster than you think and having two major political parties that own their own newspaper, tv and radio station increases the number of followers. We cannot eliminate the fact that Maltese citizens are sometimes blinded by their preferred political party. It is also fascinating that such a small island has seven different local newspapers that are sold on a daily bases, bringing to light the trust in printed newspaper.
ReplyDeleteWe can understand the fact that social media and news websites can sometimes be seen as untrustworthy. This is because lately we are being exposed to a large amount of fake news and clickbait leaving the readers suspicious of the material being read. We can conclude that certain news being portrayed even in newspapers may be misleading. Infact according to the Eurobarometer survey, Maltese citizens are twice as likely to trust the government than the media, bringing into light the influence that politics portray on the Maltese population.
Again, it is redundant to say “In my opinion, I believe”. Pick one or the other. Also always capitalize TV. But at least you answered the question.
DeleteIn Malta, news media is trusted quite a lot, and that has a lot to do with the fact that it is such a small island, thus word travels fast everywhere. Since the news sources are so limited, before anything is printed or publicly announced on television and/or radio, the news have to be confirmed by primary sources/first-hand witnesses. On the opposing end, there is social media news. I tend to distinguish the two greatly as printed/public news media is guaranteed to be real, but news posted on social media (especially those from unofficial sources) are often disregarded and rightfully so. Frequently, people like to exaggerate in order to get attention in the form of likes and comments, when in reality it's a very wrong way to approach serious issues. That is also much easier to do online as one could get an immediate response from their audience. When it comes to news, the internet is very susceptible to misinformation. Luckily enough, news media in Malta such as newspapers are still highly popular and trustworthy in comparison to other, larger countries.
ReplyDeleteIn 2014, little more than 30% of the Dutch people said to trust the media. However, the amount of trust the Dutch have depends upon what medium we are talking about. In 2015 another research was conducted. The results showed that traditional media are trusted most: 60-65% of the Dutch trusts the information they gather from the radio, newspapers and television – which is, by the way, more than the Dutch have trust in government institutions. People trust social media least – only a fifth of the populations said to be trusting the information they gather from these platforms.
ReplyDeleteThe traditional media are the most trusted because of their reliability and quality. Social media are mainly shallow and less reliable. On the other side, social media has its advantages: news is always up to date, and the shallowness is attractive to some.
So overall, in the Netherlands it really depends what kind of media we are talking about. The traditional media are trusted above average – around 60-65%. However, the trust in social media is very low. This is mainly because of the spread of fake news and the unreliable sources. The traditional media in the Netherlands are varied and plural and the government has various policies to ensure its objectivity and reliability. Due to this, the traditional media in the Netherlands are a reliable news source for most of the population.
good, but make it percent
DeleteThere are various sources which one can make use of in order to gather information or news, these include radio, television, newspapers and social media. Although some seem to be viewed as more reliable than others. When it comes to Malta, in the Special Eurobarometer 452 study regarding media pluralism and democracy, it was seen that Maltese citizens think that the radio is the most reliable source whereas social media and television are the most unreliable sources. The results were very close but ultimately the population seems divided on the reliability of news sources.
ReplyDeleteWhen considering Malta's small size one must keep in mind that the sources available are on a smaller scale when compared to larger countries such as Italy. That being said a news story tends to spread quickly and everyone goes to give their own view on what happened. In my opinion, in Malta it is important to be aware of the agenda some sources may have. It is no secret that some sources favour a particular political party and as a result tend to shine a positive light onto it. As a consequence there might be partisan bias, which is why one should not rely on one source to gather their information but rather a range including blogs to get an idea of other perspectives.
does not answer the question
DeleteI feel that the Maltese citizens trust in news media more when compared to other countries. They may not want to believe everything the media says, but because Malta is a small island, word travels fast and people are left with no choice but to believe everything the media conveys. I personally believe that some “news organisations are ‘just looking for a story’ and are driven primarily by circulation and audience figures”. It is still present to this very day. Nevertheless, each news branch in Malta is biased because it falls under a certain political group, making the news they write either side with one political party or the other. It feels as though “powerful people are using the media to push their own political or economic interests”. Therefore when it comes to political biases, I personally say that Malta will top most countries.
ReplyDeleteThe newspaper, radio and television industry are trusted in the eyes of the Maltese but are still biased because they either fall under the Nationalists or Labour Party. Therefore depending to which side people support, they would believe it, no matter how biased, because it’s favoured to their preferred view. For someone who wants a non-biased view, I personally do not think these mediums are trustworthy. When it comes to social media in Malta, it is a less trustworthy source to get information from. On social media, anyone can post anything, therefore making it an unreliable source. News on social media, such as Facebook, is known for its click bait, which is giving a story an exaggerated or not-even-related headline in order to get more views. This will eventually decrease the reliability of the page. This was even stated on a study titled “Bias, Bullshit and Lies”, where only 24% of people thought social media does a good job in helping separate fact from fiction. News websites are trusted more in the eyes of the Maltese rather than social media, although there is still the problem of fake news. I feel as though social media news and news websites are read as to create a foundation of information for the individual to decide his or her own opinion.
who are you?
DeleteVictoria Camilleri.
DeleteYour comment is very good, but please learn the percent thing.
DeleteAccording to a study by the University of Munich, Germans trust their public media in comparison to other countries. In a country ranking of the "Reuters Institute Digital News Report 2017" of the University of Oxford, the German media occupy the seventh place among 26 countries.
ReplyDeleteRecent studies by the Universities of Munich, Mainz and Wuerzburg show that trust in the public media and the daily press has remained stable, even raised slightly.
Short-term fluctuations in trusting the media are not an extraordinary phenomenon, they are sometimes related to the degree of political satisfaction of the population. Especially during the "crisis year" of 2015, the political dissatisfaction of the people expressed a growing mistrust of established institutions, which, according to the Edelman Trust Barometer also include the major media houses like “Das Erste” or “ZDF”. In the year 2015 Germany experienced a huge wave of refugees. This has fuelled many fears, and in part, brought anger. Many people made their own image of reality and mistrusted the news, which, in their opinion, not only embellished the situation, but also partially distort.
Nevertheless, quality-journalism and the creditability of professional journalism as a source of information are still highly important to the society, especially in the digital age. The Internet makes it possible for everyone to find news far away from the established media houses. However, information from unsecured or unknown sources is often flawed, untrue or trying to deliberately discredit the system politically motivated, as the study of the University of Munich shows.
I personally trust the German media and news, while paying attention to the broadcaster or publisher. I am aware that there are sometimes dubious reports. In this case, I try to form my opinion from several sources.
find statistics here:
https://www.heise.de/tr/artikel/Statistik-der-Woche-Vertrauenswuerdigkeit-von-Medien-3880643.html
and here:
https://de.statista.com/infografik/11427/vertrauenswuerdigkeit-von-deutschen-und-internationalen-medien/
Well researched and thorough, but you do not make clear in your first sentence whether Germans trust their media more or less. You just said they trust them in comparison.
DeleteIn my honest opinion, the media in Malta is more or less reliable. The three most viewed news channels on the island are TVM, ONE & NET TV stations. Two of which are politically driven by opposing parties, One & NET, while the other is more or less non biased. Here facts are stated but not the whole truth will be portrayed on each channel. Therefore if one had to see all 3 news casts and puzzle all the bits and pieces together, the viewer will be well aware of the truth on what really happened throughout that day.
ReplyDeleteOn the other hand, Social media and news blogs are not always a good way to find trustworthy news, unless the source is proven to be reliable or backed up with enough evidence and links to other reliable sources.
The majority of news viewers find out daily news from around the world from social media sites and blogs. It is very easy to spread fake news nowadays with the use of social media and web based news articles. This is why I rarely visit any news sites unless I find something interesting online, at which I then do my research on the event as to assure myself that what I have read has actually happened.
numbers! otherwise good
DeleteIn a small island such as Malta, people know each other like the back of their own hands. Then of course, word of mouth travels faster than the speed of light itself.
ReplyDeleteThe question of how trustworthy news media is in Malta is very difficult to respond, because in such a country, people tend to believe the media depending on the situation.
There are several types of media, which in my opinion, are divided into two. For one section, the sun is always shinning and everything is positive. For the other, the weather is always gloomy. This denotes to the main political parties, both of which own their own means of media, and which thus steers to biased news.
Without any doubt, trust in news media here in Malta is higher than other countries. This is due to Malta’s size and the citizens’ obsession on politics and their reliance on the statements of their political party, as implied by tshe Eurobarometer results.
The upsurge of social media and news websites have improved Malta’s information practices and approaches. Since the younger generation prefers online media than the customary biased news bulletin or newspapers, they are inclined to distant themselves from horseback opinions.
some writing glitches, eg. shinning . . . respond . . . obsession (it should be with) . . . are you in an island or on an island? you are in a country. . . .
DeleteIn Malta people have a tendency to believe news media more often than not, especially when it’s politically driven. This sometimes can reflect badly on us but living on a small island doesn’t help. Nowadays it’s harder to find unbiased opinions, especially when two of our main TV channels are controlled by political parties who always have something negative to say against each other. It also doesn’t help that our country is obsessed with politics and those who follow it religiously will believe almost anything their party says.
ReplyDeleteI do believe however that people don’t rely on social media as much. With clickbait becoming more common than ever and fake stories popping up from everywhere, not to mention the fact that anyone can become a ‘journalist’ and report the ‘news’ online, the people have become more aware of it. They prefer to get their news from either the newspapers or TV.
This does not mean that people don’t have access to unbiased news, in fact one of our main TV channels is supposed to provide just that however I believe it will do the people of Malta some good to double check their facts and make sure to not take anything at face value.
good
DeleteIn Malta, the majority of Maltese news sources have political associations. Even when it comes to the so-called ‘independent news sources’, one can easily find political bias within the outlet. This creates two perspectives with regards to how much do the Maltese people perceive the media as trustworthy. Keeping in mind that the absolute majority of Maltese citizens are keen on politics (having a voter turnout of 92% in the last general election http://bit.ly/2BpUguN), a lot of people tend only to follow news that is directly associated with the political party that they support.
ReplyDeleteBe it newspapers, radio, television or social media, the two major parties in Malta have their established networks, and their followers do indeed follow them religiously. Naturally, such outlets hold an abysmal percentage of bias and propaganda - but people seem not to mind as they not only do not question what they are reading or watching, but they also completely ignore what other news outlets are saying, and rarely pay attention to independent news.
As previously stated, independent news sources are scrutinized by political party devotees who mock every article published on independent news outlets which criticize a government or someone/thing politically endorsed - you can witness this on news websites such as the Times of Malta when they publish such critical articles, generating a higher-than-normal amount of comments, blasting the author and the whole news organisation.
With regards to social media, it seems like the ‘Trump effect’ of blindly accusing ‘Fake News’ has reached the island. The rising amount of clickbait within online article headings are a direct effect towards the way it is being shared on Facebook, - with Malta having Facebook use as one of the highest in Europe http://bit.ly/2ycfTZe - news organisations are opting for such headings to generate ad revenues. Maltese society is slowly noticing the issue and the use of click bait - and in some cases, ‘fake news’. This is creating a distrust with media outlets, and perhaps people can start to question more the news they receive from politically-associated newsagents.
The rise of social media has a lot of negative impacts - especially when it comes to news, as I believe that social media dilutes the material - but I also believe that with social media, and the internet in general, our society can compare our nation, our governments are our society in general with foreign customs, to finally be able to question and explore outcomes when it comes to news.
excellent . . . but percent.
DeleteI feel like the news media in Malta is still trusted but not all of the outlets are on the same level. The traditional news media such as television, newspaper and radio are considered to be more trustworthy than online news media. This may be because the traditional news media have been here for a long time and established themselves as being generally reliable while the online news media is fairly new. I feel like some Maltese people, especially the older generations, find it harder to accept and adapt to change. Others may say that traditional news media are more regulated and compiled more professionally than online. Anybody with an internet connection can post online so the line can be blurred between a trusted and fake news outlet.
ReplyDeleteAnother thing to note is the heavy political influence that is present around the islands. Both the main political parties have their own news media outlets that consist of tv, newspapers, radio stations and online sites. It is mostly common that die hard fans of each party will believe every single thing they are fed through their respective political news outlet while branding the opposing news outlets as spreading fake news.
what about social media?
Delete
ReplyDeleteI personally believe, that trust in news ranks slightly higher than other countries due to the difference in the size of the community. Most people also believe and rely on things they want to believe is true. Especially when it has to do with politics. As this is the major reason which divides such a small country. Most news is centered around politics and a lot of people seem to be influenced by news on political parties.
Being such a small society, people may not think a lot of factors can affect the media, so they have a stronger chance of relying on it. The Maltese have an interest in knowing the opinion of other people or seek information from others and disregard their own. I think people mostly view TV or online news instead of newspapers or radio as the latter are more traditional sources.
Nowadays, people may delve into several opinions of people writing on a particular event or situation which may not be trustworthy and reliable. People have the freedom to post whatever they feel like on social media and everyone has an easy access to that, but these people posting online believe they have the most accurate information when there is a big chance they do not. A lot of things are made up. Also, certain news sources create a big deal out of a minor unimportant situation, it is exaggerated and news is bent.
News media is spread around very rapidly in Malta, word is distributed fast especially on social media, so there is a greater chance for news to reach the majority of people and a greater chance for people to trust what they read or hear. It is both good and bad having several news sources, but these cause a clash of opinions, which can cause damage.
Click bait is becoming an increasingly popular way to grab people’s attention to read certain news. Therefore, news sources are finding inappropriate misleading ways to gain viewers and readers, which I think is harmful to the community.
good, but I'm not sure what that first comma is doing there
DeleteBack in June this year it was reported that a new EU study - called the Eurobarometer - found that most of the Maltese citizens did not think the news media reported truthful events. They ranked as the fourth least likely Europeans to trust journalists.
ReplyDeleteDespite this, I think the Maltese are particularly biased when choosing what sort of news they are exposed to, whether being newspapers, television news, online news - as the main sources of news on the island are regulated by the two main political parties in Malta.
In my opinion, a huge number of the Maltese either choose one type of media or the other - there is no in-between, a fact which is also displayed when 'choosing' your favourite political party. You're either red or blue. Anyone who comes in the middle and is indecisive about such a decision is scrutinised and labelled by the rest of society. All of this influences which type of media is considered as truthful to the citizen. In the Eurobarometer survey it was also noted that 52 per cent Maltese trust the government - while the EU average is only 12 per cent; proving just how much the Maltese citizen is blinded by what her or his political party does and what it reports.
the Eurobarometer is back
DeleteIn my opinion Maltese journalism is heavily impacted by politics. In Malta’s case where the country has two main political parties with their own television stations and other media, journalism is often biased. I believe the country is split between those who find the news being reported on television to be true and factual and those who are extremely skeptical about everything that is being said. Despite all this, I do think that in general many trust what is being said. When compared to other countries, the newspaper in Malta is still very popular and, considering this, I believe that this is proof that many do trust the news in one way or another.
ReplyDeleteI think it is also important to remember the size of Malta when compared to other countries like the US, England or Italy. Being such a small country often leads to news being spread by word of mouth, which can lead to the spreading of inaccurate or fake news. I believe this ties well with the issue of news on social media. News on prominent social media sites like Facebook and Twitter is normally more frowned upon in certain occasions when compared to news on television or on a newspaper. Clickbaiting is normally why people look down on news online because journalists may over exaggerate an issue or alter it in a way where it becomes fake news. However it can be argued that social media has brought forward a new side of news because one can look up several articles on one particular story from different perspectives and, therefore, one can filter out what is real and what is not.
good
DeleteWe are very quick to consider Malta as the ‘exception’ when comparing it to foreign countries, and to a certain extent, with reason. Malta’s conservative, borderline insular mentality has led to political polarization in various aspects of our everyday lives, to the point where news platforms seek to brainwash rather than put forward a genuine attempt at informing us citizens. With a good chunk of Maltese society following one of the two major parties blindly, it is only a minority that is open-minded enough to look beyond the parties’ news portal’s hidden agendas. This leaves the bigger portion of the Maltese population unaware of the potential discrepancies put forward by political newspapers, radio stations or television channels. Therefore, even though a substantial amount of Maltese citizens trust their party’s media blindly, this is an unhealthy trust that is eradicating any incentive such citizens might have to look out for reliable and well-supported news sources.
ReplyDeleteFor the most part, I believe that we Maltese aren’t as skeptical as foreign countries when it comes to choosing our news sources. We are more likely to look out for news that pleases us rather than tells us the truth.
With regards to social media scepticism I believe that the biggest contrast can be seen between the younger and older generations. For the most part, Malta’s older generations aren’t nearly as technologically literate as younger generations, making it significantly harder for them to distinguish between legitimate news items and fake news.
some excellent points
DeleteJust as the question arises in Malta “How trusted are Maltese news media?”, is this question also repeatedly discussed in Germany regarding to German reporting. If you compare it with other democratic countries, the results of studies like “Bias, Bullshit and Lies” are almost the same. The trust in news media has public sunk.
ReplyDeleteI think you have to look at this pretty much differentiate and you also have to distinguish different media. The tabloid press is given less confidence than the reputable press. Social media like Facebook is just a platform for people who often make unqualified statements. Statements like these are usually less researched and partly simply invented. Some criticism is certainly justified, but it is necessary to distinguish two categories. On the one hand media critique of individual readers and viewers about journalistic failures and on the other baseless insults of anonymous online users on social media platforms.
Many publications are based too little on detailed research and factual background. It costs time and money. It’s cheaper to sit in the editorial than to go out for research. For some media it’s more important just to fill sides. The competition is is such a huge field. Everyone wants to be the first one who reports. The results are incomplete and they often contain incorrect information. Information are given which are repeatedly correct. This doesn’t seem very trustworthy but sometimes it’s necessary. The consumer wants to be informed promptly. When I don't deliver facts in a short period of time, with well-founded background reporting, the readers or listeners will inform oneself otherwise (for example via Facebook). But those are people who call the press a liar.
The censorship of reports is also an issue. Reporters are repeatedly accused of collaborating with certain people and organisations. I think that some journalists are certainly manipulative, but these are exceptions which pursue their own goals. Generally portraying media as manipulative and hypocritical is an insult to every half-serious journalist.
In a ranking of press-freedom from 2015, Germany reached position 12 and Malta is on 48, in a list of over 180 countries.
- https://www.reporter-ohne-grenzen.de/uploads/tx_lfnews/media/Rangliste_der_Pressefreiheit_2015.pdf -
So if I see the German press system or the journalism in an international comparison (we just look at Russia or Turkey) I’m glad not to be dependent on such a reporting.
Mostly there isn’t one truth. There are often different angles.
The reader, in addition to various reports and printed products, can use his own national and international sources to form a corresponding opinion. We have the variety of media and we can use it. It’s therefore useful to listen to different messages and to try to understand the correlations. This way you can distinguish what is plausible and what is not.
Press freedom and trust are quite different things, and I'm not sure what you mean by "has public sunk." But an excellent answer otherwise.
DeleteIf one compares the media in the Maltese Islands and the media in bigger countries like the United Kingdom and America one would notice a big difference. In my opinion the Maltese trust the media far more than any other country. This may be due to various different factors; one of the most prominent one is Malta's size, since it is such a small island there is not much room for the media to lie about facts in the country as the truth would always come out. And although the truth always comes out eventually in bigger countries it may take time whereas in Malta were 'everyone knows everyone' the media have no choice but to state the facts as they are.
ReplyDeletePersonally, I think the Maltese are too naïve when it comes to trusting local media. They are not able to think critically especially when it comes to stories that involve politics as they are blinded by their 'dedication' towards their political party.
Social Media has made it easier for stories to become 'clickbait' and they twist the truth in order to gain clicks and views because unfortunately everything revolves around money these days.
In the end I think it all comes down to you personally as an individual. It is up to you if you trust the media enough to believe the stories they are putting out.
I personally believe that not all types of news in Malta can be trusted. When it comes to news that involves reporting events such as accidents, day-to-day news or for instant sports, the media can be trusted. However, one must admit that news in Malta is more often than not biased. This can be first and foremost seen through the establishment of the TV channels ONE and NET TV. These two channels are based on political affiliation that of the Labour party and the Nationalist party respectively. If one had to watch the news on both of these channels, especially during the election period, one would think that the news is not covering the same story. This is because the news concerned would have political influence depending on which channel it is broadcasted on. Moreover, during this period, such channels may also be tempted to feature fake news to help their party by boycotting the other. This makes it hard for the public to choose which news to trust and believe. However, it is always important to give journalists the credit for their good and hard work. I’m sure that the journalists, and everyone else involved in the procedure to produce news, are very well trained and dedicated in their job.
ReplyDeleteIt is redundant to say "I personally believe", because you cannot believe for someone else. You don't really answer the question, which was comparative.
DeleteIn my opinion there are 2 types of Maltese people when it comes to the news media. Those that get their news solely from political news companies such as NET or One, and those that get their news solely from Social Media. This distinction is important when discussing whether or not Maltese people trust the media as each group has it's own way of reacting to media.
ReplyDeleteThose that follow political news companies will take their parties side and any news saying contrary is deemed Fake News. This is a generalisation obviously however, it was very evident when the Panama scandal came to be as many people to this day still refuse to believe that Konrad Mizzi and Keith Schembri set up a company in Panama even though it is written in black and white. Regardless if whether what they did was legal or not some people believe that any proof stating that own those companies is fake.
On the other hand those people that only get their news from Social Media can sometimes be too trusting. This was seen when a local news website posted an April fools joke stating that ISIS set up a post in Malta and many people believed it and panicked.
Numbers! And it should be "Those who get their news", not "Those that get their news". If you read your comment over carefully before posting it, I am sure you would have change "Regardless if" to "Regardless of ". More importantly, you do not answer the question.
DeleteComing from Ireland, I am in no position to comment on the trustworthiness of Maltese News Media, I can however speak for Ireland. In my own experience, I believe that the RTE (Radio Teilifis Eirn, Irish Telivision & radio) cannot always be trusted, particularly when it comes to controversial arguments between the people and the politicians.
ReplyDeleteIn 2016. RTE sparked outrage nationwide after posting what appeared to be ‘live television’ of a water protest held in Dublin. On the news, they showed that there were under 500 people at the protest when the reality of it is that it was not live, that video had been recorded in the earlier hours of the protest. This came to light after a facebook user posted a photograph showing the amount of people who flooded the streets at 12 o’clock noon, where there was a much larger crowd than displayed by RTE. I believe that this was a tactic of intimidation where the government wanted the general public to believe that we were at a loss from the beginning of the protest which was untrue.
An Irish girl from my hometown went missing in France two weeks ago, it was reported that she had tripped and hit her head while out for a run. I discussed this with a French man who scoffed after I had told him about the incident and said ‘that is what the French authorities want you to believe, there is more to that story I can assure you’. This also has me doubting weather or not any national news can be taken at face value. I do not believe that the Media always reports the entire truth of the story and that they can be swayed in any direction often leaving the reader to decide for themselves which side of the story they wish to believe.
Use "fewer than 500 people" instead of "under 500 people" unless you are talking about the ground under their feet or something. Note that it would not be "less than" because you are writing about a discrete number, not a quantity. This is a classic example of a comma splice sentence: "An Irish girl from my hometown went missing in France two weeks ago, it was reported that she had tripped and hit her head while out for a run." It is two complete sentences spliced together with a comma. Use a period instead. Does not address the question.
DeleteI think here in Malta people trust things way too easily and this includes the media, could be because many of them are careless or simply do not want to worry too much about certain topics. But you have people like that everywhere and it might seem more here because it is a small island with its population around 400.000. However this is changing slowly, especially people and friends in my age group are not trusting the media in Malta.
ReplyDeleteIn my opinion, if one is a questioning and skeptical human being then the fact should be clear that you cannot just put your full trust into something, especially into something like the media. Most of the mainstream media is just showing what they are allowed to show and can never really reveal the truth because they might get into troubles (lawsuits,.. etc.) or simply because of lack of evidence. Generally speaking, I believe media should expose and shame those who promote obvious falsehoods and alternative facts, as one way to win back the trust of people.
Regarding social media, if used properly can be a powerful tool to demonstrate knowledge and is encouraging to ask questions, and also to keep in touch with family and friends etc. Any media should demonstrate integrity, be capable of being understood by most readers, be free from jargon and any subject matter, if it makes claims or statements, and should be referenced in some way. There is no excuse for any journalist to produce unsubstantiated work. Social networks like Facebook and Twitter have made consuming news very simple and very fast. Unfortunately, the resulting overabundance of information can also make it harder to discern good reporting from outright falsehoods. But I personally think that people use social media to argue and discuss with other people and gather information from them, and then create their own opinion about something, instead of trusting what the news are telling them.
Use commas in numbers like 400,000. Does not address the question.
DeleteAn article written by The Times of Malta reports that according to a survey conducted by Eurobarometer earlier this year, just one in four Maltese trust the press when reporting local events. This statistic ranks the Maltese as the fourth least likely Europeans to trust journalists. So according to this study and the ones mentioned throughout the blog, the Maltese trust their media less than other European countries.
ReplyDeleteOn the other hand, this survey also revealed that fifty-two percent of the Maltese population trust their government. This statistic is twelve percent higher than the European average.
As a Maltese citizen myself I'm fairly surprised with these two statistics. I would have thought that the majority of Maltese people would trust the press whilst the second statistic would be a much higher percentage than the one derived. I don't trust the Maltese media to tell the truth about local events, but rather use it as a source to gather information and then come to a conclusion myself. This is because to paint the full picture one must consult many different newspapers that are biased towards a political party. When reading stories on different newspapers it is blatantly obvious that all of them are pushing towards a particular party, frankly it's a disgrace. After reading about four different articles from four different sources I'd still be surprised if the reader was given the full truth about an event. This also applies to local television, radio, and news websites.
With regards to social media I believe that it is both a positive as well as a negative for the news. The positives include a wider variety of voices to be heard, instant news, and also interactivity. On the other hand, negatives associated with this phenomenon are things such as clickbait and terrible reporting to cater to a particular audience (such as Lovin Malta). This has led journalists and online news writers further in the direction of 'just getting a story' rather than reporting all the facts and painting the full picture.
Good answer, but remember the rule on numbers. It should be 52 percent, not fifty-two percent. Actually, percentages is one exception to the rule. You always use numerals with them, even if under 10, eg. 5 percent. Here's another comma splice: "When reading stories on different newspapers it is blatantly obvious that all of them are pushing towards a particular party, frankly it's a disgrace."
DeleteBeing that Malta is a very small island, word of mouth travels fast and all types of news; real and fake are distributed around the whole island in the blink of an eye. Some Maltese people in my opinion do still trust the media as everything but the majority of the population has little faith in the news being reported. This is due to the fact that in Malta political parties which heavily influence the population, have their own respective newspapers as well as influence on others which they do not own. Being as politics is taken as a passion for many Maltese citizens, when something is reported by one’s favourite political party, s/he is going to believe it irrespective of bias. But there are other newspapers which remain neutral and respect the value of news as being the truth and nothing but the truth namely the Times of Malta.
ReplyDeleteRegarding trustworthiness between newspapers, radio and television one cannot judge. This is due to the fact that it is a matter of opinion. It all depends on which station or newspaper you are getting your news from. The subject of trustworthiness will always be divided as to which type of news one prefers. In my opinion, whoever reads the news should check more than one source to verify the facts of the other sources.
The problem with social media news is the matter of clickbait. Nowadays social media is littered with clickbait all in an attempt to make more money. Another downside of social media is the matter of accuracy. Most of the times news is put out on social media first but facts are not always true and might also be make believe. Yet online media does have its advantages. One of them being that people can share their opinions with each other and see things from other people’s perspective. Unfortunately, though from my point of view the fake news which is put online only makes people trust the media less than ever before.
Yes, trustworthiness is a matter of opinion. What's yours?
DeleteWhenever something of importance happens in Malta, the word is spread extremely quickly, be it through established news media such as newspapers or websites or via word of mouth. One will hear of whatever goes on in the country within an hour of its happening, particularly when it is likely to cause a stir within the public, i.e. anything relating to politics. Most Maltese individuals, particularly the older generations, tend to steer away from reason and simply have a closed-minded and ill informed view of politics. This is strengthened by the extremely biased news agencies in the country, who report and discuss events in a way that present their respective political parties in a way that may be deceiving. This is not how it should be.
ReplyDeleteNews is simply defined as new and noteworthy information about some current event. News media should report the whole story from a neutral perspective. Instead Maltese news media are immensely one-sided. This is because the major newspapers, television channels and radio stations are owned by Malta’s two main political parties: Nationalist and Labour. For this reason, the news reported cannot be unprejudiced. Journalists, who are supposed to be bound by some moral and ethical code to report the whole truth, must be biased even if they wish to tell the whole story.
This has been the case since the beginning of news reporting in Malta, making it common knowledge which news paper or radio station swings left or right. In turn, this makes it even easier for people to read or hear the news regarding their interests and political parties. There isn’t the need to sift through various articles or channels because the news they will likely read is so tainted with bias, that they will surely believe whatever is being said. Maltese people, again, mainly the older generations, believe whatever the news has to say and take it as Gospel truth. People reason blindly to the extent that they base their opinions only on what they read in the news, because if it said in the papers it has to be true, right? Not quite. The situation is so far gone that there is very little chance of ever reading a true story from all perspectives that is not tainted with bias.
I think that although quite a sizeable amount of the population trusts the news media blindly, this is not the ultimate problem. The bigger issue is the fact that news media are not reliable, yet only a few can realise this. The rise of social media made it even easier to distribute unreliable or fabricated news.
In Malta, the trust is not found within the media but instead it is found within the government. This is because Maltese people are heavily affected by politics. In fact studies show that Maltese citizens are twice likely to trust the government than the media. Moreover the latest Eurobarameter survey stated that 40% of the Maltese respondents trust their government whilst only 34% of the Maltese citizens said that they trust the media. According to the study, Malta’s trust in the government increased drastically since last year and in consequence the trust in the news media is slowly fading away as time proceed. The Eurobarameter study also shows that our trust in media is different where 32% trust the written press, 38% trust the radio and 47% trust television.
ReplyDeleteAlthough the study shows that people trust their government more, I think that Maltese citizens still find value in their local news stations. In spite the fact that all medium of news are politically based, a lot of people (especially the older generation without any use of social platforms) get their news via traditional means. For example they read the newspapers on their way to work or watch their favorite news station at noon to have an insight on events happened during the day.
However in contrast, the Millennial generation are likely to use social platforms to obtain their news. The use of social media has the ability to reach a wide audience of the population and even other nations. The advantage of here is that it allows the reading audience to integrate and share their opinion on the site. This can aid the news industry but social media is also one of the main factor that fake news is spread. For example uncredited news sources with misleading titles are viewed on Facebook known as ‘clickbait’ so that news agencies can profit off. Social media can also cause inaccurate information and this is because many agencies wants to be the first to report news in order to focus their attention of their website. Usually what happens is that under pressure they face to report inaccurate news or simply news that isn’t true at all. As a result this might destroy the creditability of story and could also cause negative effect based on what the news implied.
Information taken from:
http://www.maltatoday.com.mt/news/national/77825/maltese_people_twice_as_likely_to_trust_government_than_media_#.Wi2Zq0qnGUk
https://www.timesofmalta.com/articles/view/20160304/local/maltese-trust-government-more-than-they-do-the-media-survey.604566
https://www.timesofmalta.com/articles/view/20170602/local/maltese-more-likely-to-trust-government-than-the-media-study-shows.649583
Percent! And if you are going to trot out the Eurobarometer study again, at least spell it right. Otherwise good.
DeleteIn my opinion, the news media in Malta is trusted much more than the countries mentioned in the study. It is a cultural trait within the Maltese society to be utterly devoted to one political party (Nationalist or Labourist), and listen to what that same party has to say. In doing so, Maltese citizens tend to overly trust the media which is in line with their supporting political party, subjecting them to a form or propaganda and biased.
ReplyDeleteThe Maltese media isn’t necessarily trustworthy since the particular political party’s media will twist the truth, write politically biased arguments, and put the opposing party in an undermined position. Effectively, each political party will convey its message through its own newspaper, radio station, website and TV station. To the belief of most Maltese citizens, especially the older generation, such source of news is extremely trustworthy, despite not actually being so when compared to news from reliable and unbiased media sources. Effectively, the more open-minded, younger generation might fail to understand such an approach based on political belief, thus, might consider politically-based media sources as less trustworthy, and rely on independent media such as ‘Lovin Malta’ and ‘The Times of Malta’.
I believe that news websites and social media are perceived to be less trustworthy than newspapers, radio and television. Social media in particular seems to have a bad stigma when it comes to news, most likely due to the ever-growing phenomena of click bait. It is a common issue among users of social media to experience interest in a particular article, click on it and realize that the exaggerated title doesn’t have to do anything with the article being read. When it comes to breaking news, however, it is a known fact that social media and news websites are the first to deliver news stories, thus, we are inclined to believe the story as reported due to its timeliness, even though we are aware that more trustworthy sources such as newspapers might have a more detailed and precise report on the story.
Personally, I trust a news article when I know there is no influence of political parties or bias. If I am to make a judgement, I will only express my position after going through a number of different trustworthy sources through which I can get a precise understanding of the story. For the most part, I believe that as a society, the Maltese haven’t yet adopted such an approach. Due to their extreme dedication to politics, many are blinded to one-side of the story and fail to identify the political propaganda behind every news story as delivered by a particular political media source.
Notice how she answered the question directly.
DeleteI personally think that the media is very much trusted especially when it is political. Politically Malta is very divided and even just by listening to the tone when presenting the news you can tell on which side they are. With our educational system, especially with the generations before us, critical thinking was never taught and thus they believe what they hear. While looking at the comment under a certain article you easily see what people choose to believe and bend it in a way that suits them. Newspapers in Malta are very much trusted along with television as there is the broadcasting authority which watches especially TVM. Radio is listened quite frequently and even political parties and the church have their own radio stations. Regarding the news websites a lot of them are genuine. Social media is one of the best tools which all of these media entities use to their advantage. Regarding fake news, last summer if i'm not mistaken there was a rumour regarding the prime minister being hospitalized which was later denied. This shows that not everything on social media is true and it can easily be fake. I think that all media are portraying their perspectives and writing and commenting on such facts. It’s the people's duty to deeply analyse and to compare the information given. Personally I think that the public ones such as TVM is more objective in their news delivery but still watch other sides to see the whole picture. To conclude I think that the media would be more trusted if the sources they cite can be easily be found by the public so they themselves can verify.
ReplyDeletedoes not make comparative conclusions
DeletePersonally, I feel that the current situation in the Maltese media is fragile due to several factors. One of these factors is that two out of the three main news outlets are owned by the respective political parties who will obviously attempt to report news that favors their respective party. This means that if someone views only that outlet, then they will think that current events are all based on the party’s ideologies. This is why many people discredit the arguments of others and discredit also those news outlets.
ReplyDeleteAnother factor is that trust in the Maltese media (at least in my opinion) is at an all time low. This is partly due to the fact that people feel that they are not being represented enough which may be an issue but that also leads to people choosing to blindly follow any news article, even if it may not be true. For example, if a Eurosceptic reads an article about how the flaws of the European Union that uses made up statistics and wrong information, then they will most probably not look further into the information and agree with the reporter. Then, that article is shared for others to view which in turn creates a snowball effect that leads to a multitude of people believing fake news. This creates two sides: those who believe the article and those who do not and so, choose to discredit the whole news outlet.
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ReplyDeleteI personally believe that the media in Malta is highly influenced by politics. This is because many news and media outlets are supported or influenced by some sort of political party or movement. A clear example is found in the results achieved from the Eurobarometer survey. The survey results showed that the people trust the government more than they trust the media. With 1 out of four people showing trust in the government, results like this can cast a shadow on the media industry and doubts rise regarding its credibility.
ReplyDeleteNowadays social media has also been given a prominence with breaking news stories hitting sites like Facebook and Twitter on a daily basis. Yet one can find it very easy to encounter fake news stories. Not all material is screened and filtered on social media unlike that on T.V or newspaper. This puts viewers at risk of being misled and given the wrong insight on a situation. This is sometimes evident in partisan news here in Malta.
Why do you all keep using "personally" with the personal pronoun? You personally seem to only want to get things half wrong, like "1 out of four" and "T.V". Only 167 words, mostly repetitive.
DeleteIn an ideal world, journalists would be fair, honest and truthful to their work. However in Malta, the media is mainly influenced by the two main political parties, Labour and Nationalists.
ReplyDeleteBoth political parties have their own newspapers, television stations and social media platforms and both are supported by massed of Maltese citizens.
Any news story that is brought forward to the public is told through the point of view of either political party, usually only giving one side of the story with the aim to put down the other political party. This makes it difficult for one to believe the whole truth of the story. Many people will stick to what their preferred political party reported and this causes conflict with people following the same news through the opposite political party, leaving one with an bitter taste in their mouth.
On the other hand, there are independent newspapers such as the “Times of Malta” that have their own unbiased journalists. This is the news that I usually believe and trust, as probably many of the Maltese do too. However one may argue about the political beliefs of one of these journalists employed by the independent newspaper, therefore assuming the news is biased too.
Therefore in my opinion, trust in the media in Malta is not as high as in other countries where the media is not as biased as it is in such a small island where news is manipulated and twisted with.
good
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ReplyDeleteIn my opinion, the news media in Malta is much more trusted than in other countries. Many families still watch the 8PM news religiously during dinner, it’s something that has been embedded in our culture for a long time. Maltese people tend to trust the newspapers and television stations less or more according to the political party they are affiliated with.
In fact, in my opinion it is very hard for a journalist to make it in Malta unless they associate themselves with a political party (news station they work for), this makes it difficult for them to be unbiased and stay neutral especially because most of the news in Malta is about politics.
As if it wasn’t easy enough, social media has now made it even more efficient for news to travel faster in Malta. However, I do think that it has its pros and cons. On one hand, it has encouraged more people to start expressing their honest opinions by writing blogs or even statuses for that matter. On the other hand, it has increased the amount of fake news seen around on the internet. Some websites are using their headlines as clickbait, as they have realised that most Maltese people tend to share articles without even reading more than the headline of the article.
good, but here is a whopper of a comma splice sentence: "Many families still watch the 8PM news religiously during dinner, it’s something that has been embedded in our culture for a long time."
DeleteIn my opinion, news and media in Malta don’t leave that much of a big imprint of Maltese societies. The fact that the country is practically controlled by politics automatically shifts the reader to one side or the other and therefore, believe and absorb the news he or she wants to hear and therefore the news won’t be considered a trusted but more as absorbed. Very few newspapers can be considered as unbiased in our country and practically all news papers are heavily influenced by the two main political parties in Malta. If a person wants to hear news which suits his ears, he will choose what newspaper his political party prints out and he will eventually believe the news written on it. So in my opinion, "trust" can't explain how Maltese people look at media. It is more of a choice of what we want to believe. This was instilled in us since we were kids, still attending our first school and will still be happening even in the future.
ReplyDeleteOne newspaper which strives to be unbiased and report good and trustworthy news is The Times of Malta. Although, it may seem as a bit biased towards one party at times, in my opinion it's the best newspaper in our country by far. However, social media and online news don't have the qualities to be considered as trustworthy news. Online news tends to rush out its news in a considerable number of ways which can easily distract readers and viewers from the main topic and gist of the news. The use of click baits is increasing the ambiguity of news and therefore it is decreasing the trust in news by viewers who find these "tactics" superficial. On the positive side of things, reliable newspapers such as The Times of Malta, use social media platforms to update and promote their news and articles. The ambiguity of social media news can leave a huge imprint on teens as they are confronted by it and therefore will be valued as trustworthy by a good number of readers. A factor which concerns me above all and is killing our trust issues regarding news is that buying newspapers daily was a trend that is experiencing a slow death and therefore automatically without the backing of the news from reliable sources decreases out trust in 'traditional' media sources. Also, in my opinion, the fact that many newspapers are practically "owned" by political parties has a damaging effect on our trust. Since, presently politics in Malta, is regularly facing corruption allegations, it automatically retracts the reader from trusting the news of a "corrupt" organisation. This is because Maltese news media may have a low trust rate by its viewers and readers.
good, but consider breaking awkward 46-word sentences like this one into two: "The fact that the country is practically controlled by politics automatically shifts the reader to one side or the other and therefore, believe and absorb the news he or she wants to hear and therefore the news won’t be considered a trusted but more as absorbed."
DeleteTo say that social media is not a trusted form of news in Malta would be putting it lightly if you ask me. However with that being said, the way that news spreads over social media in Malta is another thing altogether. Being such a small island, it is inevitable that news travels fast, and social media only aids this. Through different social media websites, an almost 'word-of-mouth' is started, but people will still refer to their preferred news sources to fact check.
ReplyDeleteNow as to whether TV, radio or newspapers are trustworthy seems to be dependent on what political party you follow, at least for the most part. From my observation, a follower of the nationalist party will believe whatever The Times of Malta writes without hesitation, as The Times favours the party. As for radio, I don't listen to the radio at all and haven't heard of anyone that gets their news from the local radio stations.
The most common method for news viewing I would think would be online news websites. The convenience of these websites is he simple draw to them, as they can be viewed from any kind of device like a smartphone, laptop or tablet.
I think that the public opinion of local press is rather negative in the fact that those with agendas will hit out against those with opposing views. It's very much a situation where if someone writes something that you don't agree with, they are outlawed along with their source. Social media and news websites only make it worse. I used to read through comment sections on news websites and be appalled at most of what was being said. The convenience of social media and news websites has given rise to what is known as a 'keyboard warrior', and frankly only lends less credibility to the press.
very good, but late -2
DeleteI have been living in Malta for a year and sincerely I do not follow Maltese news or media. So, I am not such an expertise on Maltese news values. I would like to discuss Turkish media and trust in news.
ReplyDeleteJournalism is the most challenging job Turkey. Turkish people have no trust in media. All communication organizations are under control of the government. Government has limitless rights to control every newspaper and channel. They also can censor the news which they do not support and they can close or open newspapers and channels whenever they want.
All opponent newspapers and media organizations are challenging with millions of problems every day. Government is trying to shut them down. Journalists from these organizations are arrested. Millions of Turkish journalists are trying to defend their right on the courts which sounds ridiculous because even the justice system is occupied by the government.
When all things considered, Turkish people are on the fence. They do not believe or trust everything they see on the televisions. Twitter and other social networks are the trustworthy news organizations in Turkey. Citizen journalists are more objective and unbiased.
So basically, social networks are the most important communication networks in the Turkish society. More Turkish government control and censor, more Turkish people will find other ways to see the real side of the stories.
so lower, right?
Deletealso very late -4
DeleteNews media in general is not always something people feel the need to rely on. This is because, most social media nowadays is infested with so called 'journalists' typing away on their laptops infiltrating the news with their opinion and intake on a certain event, however making things up in the process.
ReplyDeleteThis ultimately makes the audience feel dubious and a journalist's credibility starts being questioned.
Taking the argument from a local perspective, does the Maltese society trust our own news media platform? or better yet, can we trust it? My intake on Maltese journalism isn't a pleasant one, this is because every morning whenever im drinking my coffee and having breakfast, checking the Maltese news paper is the last thing that comes to mind, instead I go for a different one, a foreign one.
Sometimes I ask myself why this is so but I'm still unsure. Maybe its not because I can't rely on it or because its seems to me like 'fake news' but because we're so tiny, as a society that I prefer to opt for something bigger (and in my mind, as harsh as this might sound, better).
Taking biases aside however, the last thing I would ever do is trust the articles found on facebook. Too many inaccuracies are found on facebook, which makes me question why these ever got published in the first place. Another factor with influences my opinion when it comes to not wanting to real local news media is our major bias issue. Yes as a tiny island, we're highly political. Therefore our news is mainly politics centred, having several political papers, and a few neutral ones. To further strengthen my argument about how political this society is, a survey done concluded that Maltese citizens prefer to trust the government over the media which raises eyebrows on both concerns:
The Eurobarometer survey found that the Maltese did not think the local media told the truth when reporting events. They ranked as the fourth least likely Europeans to trust journalists. However, the Maltese did trust the government. In fact, the study found they were twice as likely to trust the government to tell the truth, compared to the press.
Of course a lot of people choose the believe our local news media, television and even radio stations, because we're a small society so there aren't that many factors that might influence our news media, or so you might think. Therefore, having said this, I think that trust here in Malta ranks higher than foreign ones, who are three, four times as big as us. This still doesn't change the fact that it still has the possibility of being polluted with garbage or hidden agendas.
Local news media quality to me, is very low, making it seem unprofessional with a lot of noise and disruptive agenda. Although news is spread fast, how relevant or reliable is it? Its not a matter of how good at typing away you are, its a concept of delivering good, credible and useful information which shy away from causing damage.
Please don't use texting language like "im". And take up the extra lines between your paragraphs.
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ReplyDeleteIn my opinion, news media in Malta can be sometimes trusted and sometimes not! This is because; nowadays many people pretend that they know how to write in a journalistic way; and therefore they think that they are ready to spread news about an event that took place without even being sure about the facts themselves. I‟m not saying that all news media are like this. I‟m pretty sure that the national news portal and newspaper “Time of Malta” is a media that should be trusted because it isn‟t media of a political party or an interest group but totally independent.
Obviously because of social media, news is being spread in a faster way and therefore some news might not be up to date and not all the facts are stated. As we mentioned in our lectures, speed is a very important element in journalism but sometimes speed can „mislead‟ the reader because there might be half the facts declared or even the wrong facts declared. But most of the time in Malta the right facts are stated. This might be true because Malta is quite a small island and therefore news travels in a fast manner. News websites and social media in my opinion are helping because those people from the younger generations that don‟t follow news on TV or else don‟t buy newspapers will be able to follow news articles just the same.
Since I have grown up in Italy I would like to focus on Italian media rather than the maltese one, even though, I am quite sure that when it comes to fake news there is an alarming development which is the same everywhere. Well in Italy nowadays there is a lot of speaking about this issue and is demanding facebook’s help to avoid that Italy could be the next target for propaganda and fake news now that it’s only a few months away from the National elections, cause if the population base on a misinformation campaign well this could damage a country. Same happened with the Italian Councilor M. Renzi who back in December 2016 had to resign due to online mislead campaigns. Journalists don’t understand what objectivity means and every where you look is buffeted with fake news. So also the ability of our technology to proliferate this stuff at the speed of sound or light this massive amount of information should filter out the crap, nonetheless, I know that it would be impossible to filter with a moral compass. So be careful where you get information from, this should be given by those whose profession leads to abide by truth and to maintain a code of conduct and a code of professional ethics.
ReplyDeleteWho is TheOne?
DeleteThis is Pistininzi Christal
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ReplyDeleteFor its small size, the Maltese islands can boast with a healthy number of news based media and thus, the small population enjoys a reasonable variety of news sources to choose from. This, I think, is why the trust in Maltese news media is fairly high and higher than other countries.
In Malta, the two main political occupy their television and radio station, news portals and newspapers. Television Malta, the Malta Independent, The Times of Malta, Malta Today are newspaper based media considered to be Independent, having in fact, no ties to any political party or commercial entity. The Church’s media is also considered independent (although some argue it favours the nationalist party). With such associations bluntly shown and known, the Maltese can choose to either view the impartial and most credible media sources or the politically biased media which they choose to prefer and believe.
With the establishment of newspaper’s news portals, I believe that a wider reach is being achieved by the local news in print agencies. As newspapers were becoming more associated with a (diminishing) demand by mature people, the advent of news portals made the medium more conveniently accessible and reachable by a larger audience. Television stations created their news portals as well. However, from a financial perspective, I think that newspapers are shooting themselves in the foot, considering that advert fees are much cheaper on websites then on printed news (which without doubt would yield a higher income). Moreover, the reduction in bought newspapers also contributes to a decline in profit. On the other hand, news portals owned by television channels may reduce some profits if companies decide to advertise on their website rather than air a commercial. However I do also believe that television is not being affected as bad as newspapers in what regards finance.
Good comment, but you dropped a word in your second paragraph.
DeleteIn Malta we have radio stations, tv-stations and news websites owned by political
ReplyDeleteparties both with their own agenda and political bias. This means events are altered in a way
that they favour one party over the other and vice versa. Trust is very high in these sources
by the people who support the party itself, and obviously a lot of distrust by the people
supporting the opposing party. If one were to see the same event reported on both websites,
one would observe the biases and how one party in praised over another.
We also have independent news websites, TV stations and radio stations which 'should' be
absent of political bias altogether. This is not always the case, as politics have a large effect
on Maltese people and many times these stations are also seen as biased by people. Many
people, including myself, tend not to rely on just one news website but check events on two
or more different news sources so as to get different perspectives (not just what THEY want
you to know).
All in all I think that trust depends political preference (because of its strong influence). Even
taking into account all the people with no political preference at all, trust in most forms
journalism is even lower in Malta. This is understandable due to the scepticism that rises
from not knowing whether the journalist behind a story is has a politically biased agenda (i.e.
the things being left out of the story due to bias). I think the statistics for Malta would be quite
similar if not identical to the ones above.
TV is always capitalised and you also dropped a word in your last paragraph. Read your comment over carefully before publishing it.
DeleteDespite agreeing with Amy on the local news media, when it comes to politics
ReplyDeletesometimes news companies hit the downfall. One minute you are watching or listening
to One News (which represents one political party) stating some news about a Maltese
Politician and in the next you change the channel only to hear the opposite (coming
from the other political party) about him/her. Considering Malta being such a small
country and having only two to three main political parties, Maltese citizens are getting
fed up of the bias news they hear on different channels and even written on news
papers. If not providing fake news, local News companies are depriving the public from
knowing the whole truth.
Social media on the other hand is different. One has to choose carefully which page to
trust when viewing a short clip about a fresh accident or event. When a page especially
on Facebook, does not belong to any official newspaper like Times Of Malta for
example, faults can be noted. Faults like fake, imprecise news and spelling mistakes
which all add up to a whole reason for the viewers to lose their interest in viewing the
source’s works.
Thank you for addressing another commenter. This creates more of a discussion and makes it less like answering a final exam question.
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