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By Park Han-sol
The year 2020, throughout which residents in Korea were inundated with daily updates about the changing number of COVID-19 cases, was a period of uncertainty and confusion. Although reliance on accurate information about the pandemic proved to be more crucial than ever, the public remains largely distrustful of news media, a poll showed Friday.
When asked about "the role of the press as a provider of information in regards to the issues directly related to the life and safety of the public" in the age of the coronavirus, 62% of respondents said they have "not much" trust in the media or "none at all." Meanwhile, only 34% responded that they have "a fair amount" or "a great deal" of trust in their reporting.
The nationwide survey of 1,000 adults over 18 years of age was jointly conducted by Media Today, an outlet dedicated to reviewing journalistic reporting practices, and the pollster Research View from Dec. 28 to 31.
The numbers of those who expressed distrust in the news media were all higher than those who trusted news, regardless of age group and political inclination. Though people in their 30s (70 percent of distrust versus 27 percent of trust) and 40s (67 percent versus 29 percent) had the strongest distrust of news media.
In regards to the public's trust in specific news outlets, both terrestrial and cable, the increase in trust of conservative cable networks, especially that of TV Chosun, was noteworthy.
Compared to the poll conducted last April, people who trusted TV Chosun rose 6 percentage points, while Channel A and MBN also experienced a 1 percentage point growth, making TV Chosun the network with the highest level of trust among all seven news channels for the first time (within the polling's margin of error). On the other hand, all three terrestrial broadcasters saw a decline, with KBS experiencing the biggest drop of 4 percentage points.
Yu Hyun-jae, professor of communications at Sogang University, stressed that the public's growing distrust in mass media is not a new phenomenon, but a result of the each outlet's partisan characteristics.
"News consumers are now trained to realize how each outlet will differ in handling and delivering facts according to their partisan views," he told The Korea Times. "Seeing how the news agencies are having a feud with one another, readers become fatigued, leading to their skepticism of media in general."
This results in more consumers looking for alternatives to traditional news outlets, including YouTube videos, Yu explained.
He added that even though the COVID-19 is an unprecedented, world-changing case requiring genuine experts to provide accurate information, journalists are limited in their capabilities to discover proper sources.
"Oftentimes, reporters see certain experts getting recognition on other media platforms, and based on that publicity alone, they end up consulting the same individual, even if they are not a real expert in that field. It can become a vicious cycle."
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