More top-down than peer-to-peer: talking to Australians about their ideal news source

Abstract

In Australia as in the United States, levels of trust in news media remain alarmingly low. In four qualitative workshops held in 2018 in Sydney and Tamworth, 34 participants discussed the ways they access news, their relationship with news media, and how trust might be rebuilt. We also tested the hypothesis that Australians want news sources that are more peer-to-peer and ‘like a friend’. Emphatically, participants said they don’t want news sources to be like a friend. Instead, they want accuracy, objectivity and service of the public interest. One interpretation is that our participants clearly distinguish between news sources (the ABC, News Corp, etc.) and digital platforms (Facebook, Google, etc.). Furthermore, it would appear they expect news sources and digital platforms to play different roles and follow different standards: the former should adhere to traditional journalistic values; whereas no clear picture emerged of the role and standards that participants think should apply to the latter.