Canadians love their doctors. But journalists? Not so much.
That's according to the results of a new Angust Reid survey, released yesterday.
Since 1994, the public's respect for physicians has grown from 91% to 94%. Over the same period of time, respect for journalists (that's me!) dropped from 73% to a meagre 49%.
Ouch.
I have a theory, though: if the survey had taken into account specialization within those professions, I'm confident that we medical journalists would come out on top compared to other beat reporters. Maybe that's the doctors' respect level just rubbing off on us, but it certainly seems that nowadays, as medical reportage is becoming more and more popular in all media -- TV, print, web and radio -- the public has a near-insatiable demand for health news.
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Friday, 2 May, 2008
Public's respect for doctors rises, while trust for journalists plummets
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I think this poll would be of greater interest if it described more details re: gender, age,education.
ReplyDeleteThe largest number of voters in Canada(females over 60)have common characteristics that might affect their response:
1. they love ALL men in uniform
2. they will vote for "the man"... not the party.They admire men who"keep their word".
3. if they have personally experienced general "media attention" and subsequent " media reporting" they will often relate that the facts were " skewed" in favour of some larger interest.
The power of the media to" edit" is also fraught with interpretation hazards.
RE: specialist reporters
I have often read the interpretation of health issues and events as related/interpreted by these reporters and thought " what a shame that they are not included in health care planning". They are astute in their observations and understanding of a complex field.
A similar example is the experience of Robert D. Kaplan( Balkan Ghosts) a travel journalist who was so replete with tacit information that he became a consultant for the U.S. government...... and I would not miss one of his writings....