Journalists, allies of the people receive the last hour alerts of duty
The members of the Professional Federation of Journalists of Quebec (FPJQ) hold their annual congress this weekend.Journalists are in a gloomy mood, as the theme of this meeting testifies to this: "Journalists, public enemies?»».
Like an echo in the Mantra of Donald Trump: the media are the enemies of the people.Quebec journalists believe that they are no longer popular.But is this really the case?
The investigation of the Center for Media Studies, which we conducted in October with the Crop house, shows on the contrary that Quebecers show quite much confidence in the media and journalists, especially when we compare with the situation in D'other countries, such as France or the United States, where confidence is in free fall.
The vast majority of the 1000 respondents to our survey (representative sample of Quebec) say they make "very" (16 %) or "enough" (67 %) confidence in the media of news and information in general and 72 %of people surveyed makeconfidence in journalists (only 11 % trust them very)).The predominance of the "fairly confident" response choice, however, reveals a certain reserve in the expressed opinion.
A surprising confidence towards the media in particular
Confidence is more obvious when respondents express themselves on media in particular, they frequent and they know well.They then show less restraint and the choice of "very confident" response dominates.
This scenario is very clear for newspapers the press and the duty and for the radio-Canada (radio and television) and RDI channels.The confidence rates "very" and "enough" accumulated moreover exceed the 90 % mark.This is also the case for the VAT and LCN channels and several daily newspapers of the Capital Media group, but confidence then manifests itself in a less strong way with a preponderance for the choice of "fairly confident" response.The Journal de Montréal (83 %) and the Quebec Journal (80 %) enjoy a slightly less confidence, but more than aviable.
Our survey finally shows that only 34 % of respondents trust the news published on social media.They therefore make a clear difference between information and the news disseminated in the traditional media, on the one hand, and the information of various nature which circulates on social media, on the other.This result is another good news for the so -called "traditional" journalism world.
In this context which rather lends to joy, how did journalists think that "citizens would be wary of them" and "would accuse them of all evils", in the words of the Congress ProgramFPJQ?Are we at this point obsessed with deep media cleavage in the United States that we come to perceive our world in the image of skepticism towards the media that follows from our neighbors?Have we exaggerated the importance of virulent criticisms that social networks convey towards certain journalists and media to wrongly see the opinion of large segments of opinion?
Some downside
Obviously, Quebec media and journalists are rather popular. Some downside s’imposent cependant, qui éclairent aussi la réserve dans les opinions exprimées dont nous avons fait état.Thus, 52 % of respondents consider that journalists allow themselves to be manipulated by politicians and 62 % believe that the quality of information in the media is being pointled.
Note, the answers to the various questions in the survey show strong differences according to the age of the respondents.Respondents aged 18 to 34 stand out very clearly in their relationships with traditional information media.The youngest are much more critical towards the work of journalists and they trust them less.Large consumers of social media, they also express greater confidence in the latter than the other respondents and they are less worried about the circulation of false news.
Our survey confirms once again that young Quebecers are redefining their ways of inquiring.There is a matter for reflection for journalists in congress.Their future depends on it.
Our investigation was carried out during the electoral campaign, a period during which citizens are undoubtedly more concerned with inquiring.In addition, the debate in recent months on the financial difficulties of the media has highlighted the importance of information in a democratic society.The context may have influenced certain responses.
But the high level of confidence of citizens towards the media they frequent cannot deceive.Journalists would be wrong to worry too much.They are not the unloved they believe to be and even less the enemies of the people!
