The media plays an overwhelming role in peoples’ everyday lives. From politics to entertainment, media delivers information to the everyday person on a consistent basis. That being said the public should rarely have to question the accuracy of news outlets. Yet, it would be naive to disregard the continuous discrepancies and biases that exist in today’s media. As a result of these faults, the public has developed a decreased trust in the media.

Politics have played a big part in the decline of peoples’ trust. While the job of a journalist is to seek truth and report it, bias often peeks through even in the slightest of ways. Those small biases can turn the audience against the media, making it hard to find a neutral source. In turn, the concept of selective exposure can result. People at times may only expose themselves to the media that they want to see, out of lack of trust for other sources. Additionally, present-day youth have preemptively built their walls up when it comes to the media. For millennials as well as Gen Z, their entire childhood has been spent learning about how they cannot believe everything they read online. Although this is an ever prevalent point, it backfires when it comes to the general media.

The solution to this is not easy. Journalists and writers are human and as a result they are susceptible to some inherent biases whether they would like to admit it or not. Trust is something that can only be built but is also easy destroy. Others have suggested that this age of new media can work towards peoples’ advantage. Live pictures, videos, and tweets from everyday people help to solidify some stories. While social media is a tool, it does ultimately come down to the journalists. Often people do not know the writers themselves. Forming a stronger interpersonal relationship with the public would be a healthy start towards rebuilding trust.