CREDIBILITY IN JOURNALISM writes: Eudoro Terrones Negrete
One of the main problems facing journalism and the media will consider the lack of credibility. With little reason or communications experts argue that journalism is undergoing a deep crisis expressed by the drop in the number of readers, listeners and viewers; drop in advertising revenue, emergence of new forms of human communication as the Internet or free press, increasing market segmentation information, the significant declines in sales and advertising, the merger of major media to ensure economic viability and relevance in the market, the ostensible decline in the credibility of journalists and the media. Credibility is the most valuable and important of all journalists and media in a society etocrática, progressive and future. The more credible the journalist holds a good reputation and good image treasured environment, public acceptance of their business success. The term comes from the Latin word credibility credibilis, according to the Dictionary of the English Royal Academy (DRAE) means "credible quality" or "That can or deserves to be believed." In other words, credibility means, credible or trustworthy, believable, credible or reliable. The Greek philosopher Aristotle in his "Rhetoric" credibility means a favorable disposition toward the source by the recipient, based on three ethical reasons: the wisdom (common sense), virtue (ethical) and benevolence (goodwill) . Credibility goes hand in hand with truth, objectivity, independence and professional integrity criterion, since if the journalist or the environment means that credibility have never been involved or were judged by a lie in disseminating and commenting on the news. Credibility refers to objective and subjective components of an information, a review or a comment and that makes the public believe in such content. Components like truth, objectivity, freedom, sense of justice, fairness, pluralism, honesty, sincerity, responsibility (social, legal and ethical), loyalty, fairness, independence of mind, respect for human dignity, the internal control information management, protection of civil liberties and national interests, opening spaces for citizen participation, among others. In the Declaration of Chapultepec and Hemispheric Statement Freedom of Expression (Mexico, 1994) states: "The credibility of the press is linked to its commitment to truth, pursuit of accuracy, fairness and equality, to the clear distinction between news and commercials . The conquest of these purposes and the observance of these ethical and professional values \u200b\u200bshould not be imposed. Are the sole responsibility of journalists and the media. In a free society, the public rewards or punishes. " For the Mexican essayist Carlos Monsivais, "The information does not build credibility sources covering journalists, but the desire for objectivity that social events are counted by them. "For the credibility of the communication to be combined to produce three basic and necessary elements: content, what I see and what I hear, as happens in reality. information is credible when there is no trace of falsehood or lie, and the lack none of the elements mentioned. Journalism in many democratic countries do not have a good reputation because it is exercised, often by people without principles or ethical values. Worse even when exercised by so-called intrusive. In many countries, unfortunately, to be a journalist you do not need the professional title of journalist or degree in communication or information. Journalism is a profession and not a university career. Also, it is necessary to be enrolled in the College of Professional Journalists and is not required to have college degrees, because the journalist or social communicator is done directly on the media. Credibility, in terms of ethical values, manifested in the journalist's professional conduct based on: a) The rigorous analysis and verification of data, news events and received messages prior to dissemination or publication, b) Consultation over a source of information in each case. "We understand an information source for anyone who, by way or as personal representative of a public or private entity, holds directly or know information and display in a position to disclose who is in a position to seek such information, "refers Miguel González Pino in the book" Journalism ethics in the new millennium. Case study in a Latin American perspective. " c) The fair and transparent relationship with the players and agents of informative facts that should be broadcast or published. d) The independence of outside interests in order to disclose the truth. A source is credible or reliable when it has knowledge and experience in the subject under investigation. It note that not all sources are credible or reliable, some sources are more reliable than others, there are sources that are not credible and believable while others are permanent. Not everything reported by the witnesses is necessarily true, there are witnesses that say all they should say, since the interests they pursue, especially when telling the truth condition or request something for the whole truth (money, work , bag, etc.). There are cases where "the witnesses just tell reporters what they think based on their own interest, and can lie or embellish a story with a particular purpose without risking any legal punishment," says Karol Wojtyla, in Person and Action (BAC, Madrid, 1980). That is why the journalist must maintain good relations with news sources not to be receiver or sender of half-truths or false scoops, not to become mere merchant of news events. The journalist is a professional information criterion works independently from the pressures of the media inside and outside pressure groups of economic power and political or pressure groups. Independence from all kinds of pressure: pressure moral, social, religious, political, economic, family, labor, etc.
AND CREDIBILITY LEVELS The credibility of the journalist could be taken up and expressed at different levels or instances: - Credibility with your business or medium - Credibility with their sources (public, private, official, confidential, etc..) - Credibility with the authorities public or judicial - Credibility with its target audience; - Credibility society. LACK OF CREDIBILITY OF THE INFORMATION A newspaper report has no credibility with the public when: a. Is obtained through illegal means and unethical means. b. Not reported the event as it is, as has occurred in your environment or reality. c. Belongs the series "stolen documents." d. It is written with malice, bad faith or lack of respect for people. e. It was invented to serve the vested interests of groups or political or economic power of lobbyists. f. It has not been proven or verified its authenticity with the sources themselves. g. Is obtained from reliable sources, no credible or dubious sources. h. Lack of basic data and contains inaccuracies and exaggerations that give rise to suspicion and lack of credibility.
REASONS FOR THE LACK OF CREDIBILITY OF THE PUBLIC IN THE JOURNALISTS AND MEDIA The lack of public credibility of journalists and media communication is attributed among other things the following: a) The information factual errors, b) ungrammatical c) The bias in the comments; d) of plagiarism and fabrication scandals, e) Sensationalism f) cyberporn g) Conflicting interests; h) Submission to groups of economic, political and pressure groups. "Professor Charles Self (1988, 17), University of Texas A & M considered the reasons for the lack of public confidence in the news media and journalists working for them. Found four main reasons for this lack of credibility: 1. Insensitivity, arrogance and, Generally, misconduct on the part of journalists. 2. Inaccurate, incomplete information and, generally, professional procedures doubtful. 3. Disagreements about the kind of news employees and evaluation of the news. 4. Disagreements over the role of news in the lives of readers "(In:" The ethics of journalism / Philosophical Foundations of the new media "by John Calhoun Merrill. Universidad Técnica Particular de Loja. Translated from English by Porfirio Barroso Asenjo , Madrid, 2007, p.34). According to Restrepo, a university professor, one of the most remarkable examples of journalistic ethics in Latin America and director an ethical practice on the internet of the Foundation for New Latin American Journalism, there is a crisis of credibility in the Latin American press, because it is losing distance of the facts and the protagonists are and do the news: "to take the side of interest good or bad, the press is losing credibility call that security. Failed to observe the events from a distance. It is a press that is looking at history from the power, in many cases, from above. The media and journalists are losing their perspective, they need to look at the world from below ... If the journalist takes sides have distorted vision of those who see from one side and the journalist to see from all sides. " Restrepo said that in the United States that happened "so openly that has been accentuated after the attacks of September 11, 2001, as the conditioned media information to government interests, took advantage because they could not keep your distance" Together media, Internet is the least credible to the public, due to the existence of websites and blogs to disseminate confidential information without contrast and falsehoods which become involved. FACTORS FOR JOURNALISTS AND THE MEDIA HAVE CREDIBILITY credibility to journalists and the media should a number of factors: - objective, truthful, clear and precise. - Elimination of bias in the information, reviews, interviews and reports. - Ability to automatically correct errors or the request of the interested party. - Fairness of the information, commentary, criticism, interviews and reportage. - Commitment to service the interests of the community. - Editorials that focus on the real problems of society, and apply suggested solutions. - Give priority to issues of substance on the trivial and frivolous. - Total independence in their reporting, independence from the government, the branches of government, political parties and trade unions, the economic power groups and politicians and lobbyists. - Moral and professional authority of the owners of the media for questions and punish those who violate moral and legal standards in journalism. - No information regarded as a mere commodity. - Do not broadcast programs that contain gratuitous violence, sanction, promote or glamorice violence, gratuitous violence understand the material that does not have an integral role in the development of a theme or program. "PRAGMATIC ETHICS TEST" Francisco Vásquez Fernández, in his "Ethics and Information Ethics (Auditorium, Spain, 1991:182 and 183), explains that" communicator's credibility is called "pragmatic ethical test" because it involves sending messages with ethical responsibilities, by the issuer, and assigned to it by the receiver. At its plenary sense, refers to the ethical behavior of the sender, source credibility, "which is a" set of attitudes and beliefs that an audience feels about the source, based on three essential features: good intentions, reliability and competence or experience "(R. Ross). Credibility of the source is defined by attitudes of faith and trust in the good intentions of the issuer, in its social position in their professional authority and sincerity. " For Vasquez Fernández, credibility explanatory answers: a) The credibility as pragmatic ethical test "is the enhanced credibility in his message for the attributes and ethical conduct of the issuer, such attributes are encrypted ethical values \u200b\u200bof honesty, intellectual acumen and willingness b) The pragmatic ethical test of credibility is enhanced, in turn, with: the similarity perceived by the receiver of the source, with the use of voice and speech, with the use of humor and solid evidence. The common people feel that the media modulate information pro-business interests, forgetting social interests and manage to trade favors with the groups of political and economic submission to the will of the lobbyists instead of the audience's interest. So the media entities are no longer representing the interests of the Company or its target audience.
