Impress has announced a new report from the Universities of Leeds and Derby into public perceptions of journalism in the UK has found that improving trust in the industry will require “greater visibility, transparency, and public engagement” to achieve a more effective level of press regulation.
The study, that was supported by Impress, saw Professor Julie Firmstone and Professor John Steel carry out eight focus group sessions with a total of 44 participants, and uncovered a lack of trust in the news media and a need to boost knowledge levels regarding how regulatory processes work.
“Amidst declining levels of trust and confidence in news, coupled with an associated constant flow of mis/disinformation, our research highlights the importance of engaging with the public, gaining insights into their perceptions and experiences of how journalism performs its important civic role as well as how it is regulated,” Professor Firmstone and Professor Steel said of their latest work.
“Our study highlights the need for news organisations and regulators to have a more visible and meaningful engagement with the public and to take note of their suggestions for addressing the challenges of declining trust in news.”
It follows on from the 2022 Impress News Literacy Report, a survey of more than 3,000 people also carried out by Firmstone and Steel, which uncovered a desire for journalists to tell the truth and admit to their mistakes, as well as a lack of knowledge of how news creation and regulation takes place.
These latest findings mirrored those statistics, with many of those taking part in focus groups shocked to discover that press regulation was voluntary.
Participants also recognised the challenges of regulating news in the online world, pointing to the “vast and dynamic nature” of producing content on websites and social media.
The focus groups for the research were carried out in 2022 and 2023, but its publication has coincided with the aftermath of riots across the UK, sparked by misinformation that was started by illegitimate news sites, and spread on social media, about an attack in Southport that saw three children killed and nine others injured.
Impress says it called for urgent collaboration between politicians, media organisations and community groups to work towards tangible solutions to tackle the ways in which misinformation is allowed to flourish.
The focus groups highlighted that audiences are concerned about the need to combat misinformation but emphasised the need to ensure freedom of expression was not stifled.
You can read the latest report into public perceptions of UK journalism and regulation here.
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