Lenore Taylor talks trust issues
Australians have less faith in their national media than Americans
When Guardian Australia editor Lenore Taylor addressed the crowd of journalists at Storyology Sydney, I sat, eyes wide, eager to learn how she finds sources and gets the best scoop out of her interviews.
You can imagine my surprise when she began by admitting that Australians don’t trust the media.
Australian’s faith in the media is faltering, she said, referring to a 2017 Essential Poll, which reported that trust in news and opinion websites sat at a low of 36 per cent. Even more surprising was the fact that trust in Australian media was rated lower than U.S media.
Taylor admitted that this was a worrying result. “It’s especially surprising when you consider how deliberately the U.S president has been working to undermine confidence in the country’s press,” she said.
With the word ‘fake news’ being thrown around by politicians that simply do not like a story, Taylor believes it is now more important than ever that journalists do not become “complicit with their facts” and continue to publish the best version of the truth that they can.
A part of combating the distrust in media is responding to readers. For Taylor, this means listening carefully when readers criticise our work. Good journalism is controversial at times, so responding to what readers want while still providing “journalistic standards of facts and balance” can become a fine juggling act.
But all this comes at a price. The crunch is finding the revenue to maintain reader loyalty and trust. Will it degrade journalism to think of readers as customers above all else, since the customer is always right?
This is a driving reason Taylor is passionate about The Guardian’s membership contribution model.
“Membership paves the way for a different kind of relationship with media and means we have to have an ongoing conversation with our readers,” Taylor said.
It has also meant that journalism has remained open and accessible to more than just the 35,000 members of Guardian Australia — and that figure is since August last year.
Through this business model, Taylor says that readers and writers develop trust through continual dialogue. Although she admits the challenge for publications will be to find revenue streams that allow journalists to “respond to their readers,” she remains optimistic about trust in the media.
“We’re financially rewarded for what we do, which means there is trust at the heart of our journalism.”
If there’s one thing that’s for sure, it’s that trust needs to be earned.
