Is the Age of Impartial Journalism Over? The Neutrality Principle and Audience (Dis)trust in Mainstream News

Abstract

This exploratory study addresses the relationship between audience trust in the news media and the ideal of neutrality in journalism. It starts from the premise that, at a time when national conservatism is on the rise as a political movement in Western societies, journalism is less and less recognised as a neutral actor in politics. Therefore, efforts to present itself as such may be damaging journalism’s credibility and trustworthiness among its publics. The article examines this premise on the basis of a representative survey of Finnish media audiences and three focus group interviews, asking how Finns’ expressed trust or distrust of the mainstream news media is connected to their perceptions about journalism’s neutrality and impartiality—or lack thereof—in political debate. The findings indicate that while the large majority of Finnish audiences express trust in the mainstream news media, they are divided when it comes to their level of confidence in journalism’s neutrality. Moreover, both trust and perceptions of neutrality are strongly associated with audiences’ political outlook. We conclude that audience distrust of the media mainly reflects the difficulties that mainstream journalism faces in giving an equal voice to all political groups and views at a time of heightened ideological contestation.