Don't Diss the Printed Press

The Pew Research Center recently did a study to determine the outlets that the people were getting their news from. It concluded that people go to different sources depending on the topic they want to know more about. For instance, TV is most popular for weather, traffic and breaking news. This surprises me. I would think that people would go to the radio for weather and traffic. Or at least traffic. But I guess both radio and TV are a form of broadcast news.
Written papers and their websites are most popular for local government updates and crime reports. I think the key part of that statement is "and their websites." It very much goes to show that technology is moving write along and written papers are getting lost. Obviously people are still reading those papers online...it's more convenient that way. But in a world that is so 'green' conscious, why not just nix the actual newspapers altogether?
I have to admit, there is something to be said for the sensory input associated with a newspaper. But it is cheaper and faster to look online. I can search what I want to know more about in Google and find every news source that has info on the topic, instead of flipping through an awkward to hold paper that I had to pay for and I might only have time to read certain sections.
Now the study also found that word of mouth (which in this generation means twitter and texting) is the second most popular for local news. Uhm Duh. That's not surprising. People want to know what their peers are talking about. It also showed that young adults rely on the Internet more than TV or papers. Well I could have told you that.

But by far the most atrocious thing that this study found is that the public does not trust their media sources. They believe that the media is heavily influenced by powerful people and groups, that they only cover one side and that reporters try to cover up their mistakes. That is entirely unacceptable. The public should be able to trust reporters and the media.The loyalty of the media lies first and foremost to the citizen. So why are we putting up with this? There were revolts back in the day when the media was controlled by the government. If we're not happy with the way out media is telling the news why don't we do the same? Is it because of power?

All I know is that if I ever make it into the field of journalism and become a reporter, I will have a code of ethics, I will be loyal to the citizen and I will be a reporter people can trust.