Fair and balanced? No, just affirmation

May 8, 2006 - 9:40pm — yelvington

According to BBC/Reuters/Media Center research, the most trusted media brand in the United States is Fox News, and the most trusted in Egypt is Al Jazeera.

This tells us something about "credibility" that I find troubling: A great many people aren't looking for fairness, or balance, or authoritative reporting, or accuracy, or the other values of professional journalism that some of us, at least, hold dear.

They're looking instead for affirmation. Something that blends happily with a pre-existing belief system. Something that substantiates prejudices.

journalism

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Speeches, presentations

In my "spare" time I occasionally speak and/or teach workshops related to Internet news publishing and participative/citizen media.

Upcoming:

Ifra India CEO-Publishers Conclave, Sept. 16-17, Goa, India.

Southern Newspaper Publishers Association annual convention, Oct. 19-21, Turnberry Isle, Florida.

Forum Lokaljournalismus 2009, January 21-23, Schwerin, Germany.

I spoke on social networking earlier this year at
PNA’s e-Edge Conference (America East) and at Ifra's PublishAsia conference in Macau SAR, China, and I appeared on panels at Leadership 08: Transforming News, Knight Digital Media Center, Los Angeles, and a conference on The Future of Journalism at Harvard's Joan Shorenstein Center.

In 2007 my appearances included Paris, France; Istanbul, Turkey; Barcelona, Spain; Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, and Rust, Germany.

If you're a conference organizer, you can contact me by email.

yelvington.com

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