News People's Ideology and the Credibility Debate

Abstract

Data show newspaper journalists' tendency toward liberal philosophies is reflected in attitudes toward credibility, the way journalists and newspapers approach doing their jobs, coverage of different kinds of people, news judgment issues, press freedoms and evaluations of their newspapers. This tendency may contribute indirectly to public distrust of newspapers and other media because the public tends to be more conservative than journalists on these issues. Journalists' attitudes seem related to a “world view” which sets journalists, and one subgroup in particular, apart from the public as a whole.