Do Americans Trust the U.S. Media?
Northwestern University, Medill School of Journalism; The Harris Poll
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Northwestern University's Medill School of Journalism and The Harris Poll explored Americans' relationship with news media, in a time of widespread criticism of the media.
An online survey of 2,019 adults was conducted in the United States from May 27 to May 29, 2020.
Key findings include:
- 41% of Americans believe the news media are the "enemy of the people."
- 77% of Democrats believe the news media are trustworthy, compared to 36% of Republicans.
- 85% of Americans agree that it is essential for journalists to be completely neutral in their reporting.
- Americans are "voracious" consumers of news, but tend to favor news sources that support their own political ideology.
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Read more to know what Americans are saying about the news media, and to see how these results differ from a similar survey conducted in December 2019.
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How We Did It: How to Measure the Efficacy of Your Channels
Mike Kuczkowski, IPR Trustee, Orangefiery
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In partnership with
PR Daily, "How We Did It"
is a series featuring IPR Trustees discussing a success in their public relations career.
In 2007, one of my clients came to us with a specific request: His management team wanted a channel assessment with an investment plan for internal communications.
Typically, we had approached communications from a content-centric perspective, viewing the message as the primary means by which to improve employee engagement. None of our colleagues had done anything quite like this before, either. So, we put our thinking caps on.
Our first step was to answer a basic question: What is a channel?
Read the rest of Mike Kuzckowski's blog to learn how his team successfully quantified the efficacy of their client's communications channels.
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Threading the Needle: Corporate Communications is Transitioning from Programming to Precision
Gary F. Grates, IPR Trustee, W2O Group
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Corporate Communications plays a vital role in influencing and maintaining organizational health, setting priorities, establishing a clear direction for strategy execution, managing reputational efficacy, impacting decision-making, telling the business story, and directing competitive positioning.
Under this construct, Corporate Communications’ efforts drive demand for products and services, attract and retain talent, and build comprehension around purpose, mission, and values, thereby enhancing financial valuation, softening barriers to market entry, building critical relationship capital, easing governmental and NGO relations, and nurturing and growing stakeholder trust. Consequently, the Corporate Communications function spans an entire organization while simultaneously being tasked with bridging various agendas, priorities, and egos between and among other functions. This can be a daunting task for any Corporate Communications team, whether housed in a large, medium or small organization.
Read the rest of Gary Grates' blog to learn five key tips for transitioning your Corporate Communications function to reflect the new reality.
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The Importance of Helping Employees Thrive in a Post-Coronavirus World
Patrick Thelen, Ph.D., San Diego State University; Chief Research Editor, IPR Organizational Communication Research Center
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Patrick Thelen, Ph.D., explored a compilation of recent research to determine how employers can help their employees during COVID-19 and beyond.
Research has shown that employees across the globe have experienced an increase in w
orking hours since the beginning of the pandemic. A survey conducted by Blind, an app that provides an anonymous forum for verified employees to discuss workplace issues, found that 73% of working professionals were burned out in April compared to 61% in mid-February.
A concept known as "employee thriving at work" may help in the effort to avoid employee burnout. Researchers define this concept as "a desirable psychological state in which employees experience a joint sense of vitality and learning."
Read more to learn about employee burnout during COVID-19 and how employers can overcome this issue by helping employees thrive.
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Amid Brands' Vows to Champion Diversity, Black Consumers Spot a Hole in America's Advertising
Alyssa Meyers, Morning Consult
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Morning Consult gauged the perceptions of Black American adults regarding Black representation in advertising materials.
A poll of 2,000 Black American adults was conducted from June 18 through June 26, 2020.
Some key findings include:
- 32% of Black consumers said they don't believe they're represented "much" or "at all" in marketing materials.
- 46% of respondents said they only see people like themselves represented "some of the time."
- 43% of white adults said they see themselves represented in ads "a lot," compared with 21% of Black people who said the same.
Read more to learn about Black Americans' perceptions of Black representation in advertising.
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Fake News Exposure Linked to Lower Trust in Media, Higher Trust In Government When Your Side is in Power
Katherine Ognyanova, Ph.D., Rutgers University; David Lazer, Ph.D., Northeastern University; Ronald E. Robertson, Northeastern University; Christo Wilson, Ph.D., Northeastern University
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This abstract is summarized by IPR from the
original journal article
published in The Harvard Kennedy School Misinformation Review.
Katherine Ognyanova, Ph.D., and colleagues researched exposure to fake news and consequential levels of trust in news media and political institutions.
Two surveys of 3,000 U.S. respondents were conducted in October 2018 and November 2018, shortly before and after the U.S. midterm elections.
Key findings include:
- Misinformation exposure during the one-month period around the 2018 election was associated with a 5% decrease in media trust among participants.
- Fake news consumption was generally associated with an 8% increase for trust in U.S. Congress.
- For strong liberal respondents, exposure to fabricated news was linked to lower political trust. For moderates and conservatives, however, fake news consumption predicted higher trust in political institutions.
- Researchers argue that this finding could indicate that liberals exposed to right-leaning misinformation may be most likely to reject its claims and mistrust the current Republican government, whereas moderate or conservative respondents may take that misinformation at face value and maintain or increase their trust in the current government.
Read more to learn how respondents' trust in news media and political institutions differed based on political ideology and other factors.
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