The Voice of the People in the News

This week I read an article from the Pew Research Center called "Early Coverage on the Trump Presidency Rarely Included Citizen Voices." At first, I wasn't going to read this one because I was looking for something a little less trump centered for this week. What caught my attention most about this article was the focus on journalists lack of connection with the public and how they are trying to improve it. 

"Newsrooms are making a greater effort to connect with the public build trust, and do a better job of bringing citizen voices into the news." (Mitchell) 

I think this is one of the main reasons that people are so angry now, not just at politicians that they feel don't listen to them but because they feel like no one is listening to them. People don't have a voice in the media anymore either. Later in the article, Mitchell goes on to talk about how the network nightly news shows give citizens the best "voice" in the media. It may be for this reason that they have seen little decrease in their ratings and more sustained levels of trust. People feel more "connected" when other citizens are interviewed and made a part of the story. 

Mitchell also reports that "5% of the more than 3,000 news stories studied during the first 100 days of the Trump presidency cited a member of the public." (Mitchell) If the media wants to regain that trust, they will have to reach a higher percentage than 5%. 

Here is a link to the full article: 

Early coverage of the Trump presidency rarely included citizen voices