Trust in journalists is falling but not as low as estate agents

This quarters issue of the British journalism review reports that

public confidence in journalism is still falling

Steve Barnett who is professor of communications at the University of Westminster tries to explain why and puts it down to the many calamities that the profession has gone through over the past 18 months,including the McCann affair,the News of the World phone tapping,the phone voting scandals,the various trust issues at the BBC,C4and Itv.

What should worry the profession more though is

the massive slide in trust, relative to other organisations or groups, since this question was first asked five years ago.

adding

Just about the only crumb of comfort to be derived from the figures is the fact that red-top journalists no longer prop up the table but have the dubious consolation of being overtaken (or undertaken) by estate agents.

There are according to Barnett four factors which he calls

• the drip drip factor-ie the constant releasing of information about journalistic indiscretions
• the dog eat dog effect where different areas of the media are ready to leap on the problems of others
• the bandwagon effect where exposing the media's problems has become a national sport
• universal scepticism where all professionals are put under increased scrutiny