Commentary
TV Airing Assurance: Is It Getting Harder For Viewers To Trust?
- by Wayne Friedman , Staff Writer, March 6, 2024
Does TV still influence consumers? Yes, according to TV advertising association the TVB.
It says local TV news programs are the most trusted -- slightly more than network TV news networks.
Which are the least trusted channels? As many surveys have concluded -- including this latest one -- that would …
3 comments about "TV Airing Assurance: Is It Getting Harder For Viewers To Trust?".
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Wayne Friedman is West Coast Editor of MediaPost. You can reach Wayne at wayne@mediapost.com.
Local News is more "trusted" than national news because it's more about local happenings which most viewers are familiar with. National news--by the broadcast TV networks, in particular---- is about events happening far away which most viewers know---or care---little about. Cable "news" ranks lowest in the polls becuase of its obvious political biases---left or right---and the comabtive nature of much of its content.
OK, but does this mean that local news viewers pay more attention to comercials? Hey, TVB, why not commission a study by TVision to answer that imporant question?
Excellent points about news viewers and geographic proximity of events. Another dimension is
psychological proximity, which is a general "relevance" variable. Stated another way, viewers assess how relevant news items are to their lives, beliefs and values.
An overly simplified example--if you have no family, friends or business connections in foreign country X, news about country X is less relevant...the brain basically says 'this news isn't relevant, no need to pay attention.'
Without going into the psychological weeds, journalists should put themselves in the viewers' shoes and indicate how and why a news item is relevant. If law 27 is passed you'll be paying up to 40% or $2,000 more every year for health insurance.
If news sources, generate stories relevant to viewers, the higher the likelyhood they will continue to trust and/or use the news source. When it comes to beliefs and ideas there's the whole issue of cognitive bias. But that is beyond the scope of this post.
Great article. Excellent insights Ed and James. "A man hears what he wants to hear and disregards the rest" - Simon and Garfunkel