DO VIEWERS BELIEVE
THEY RECEIVE
ACCURATE
INFORMATION FROM
CONVENTIONAL NEWS?
Christina Hebert

I used…
 A survey in order to obtain a great deal of
information from a large group of people in a
timely fashion.
My survey was conducted via internet, distributed through
facebook.com
 I also used interviews afterwards to help point
out flaws in my research as well as get advice
of what to do differently next time.
Interviews were done in person, 5 selected interviewee’s.

Survey
There are two basic types of survey’s:
The descriptive survey, describes the

population being studied. Focusing on
demographic factors, such as; age, gender,
marital status, occupation, race, etc. (pg. 222)
 The analytical survey, looks to find out why
people act the way they do. (pg. 223)

Interview
There are four basic types of interviews:
 Informal interviews, are generally conversations used to gain
confidence between interviewee and interviewer. There are not
organized and are fairly laid back.
 Unstructured interviews, are focused on obtaining information from
the interviewee and are have little control from the interviewer.
Semistructured interview, the interviewer is generally organized,

prepared with a written list of questions to ask the participant.
These interviews remain casual but are more organized than
unstructured.
 Structured interview, there is usually a set schedule involved with
these interviews. Guidelines to cover, specific times, questions and
instructions (Pgs. 136-137).

Why I chose these methods…
 Survey. A survey was the easiest way to obtain
the information I needed from a large group of
people. It was also the easiest method to
generate a forum for and send out via
facebook.com. I chose this social networking
site because it was easy to send to all my
‘friends’ and get quick responses back.
 Interview. Interview’s were the easiest way to
receive feedback from survey takers.

Research Topic
 I am interested in finding out how viewers
perceive conventional news. Focusing on if
they believe the news delivered to them is
accurate or if important factors are being
withheld.

What viewer’s think about conventional
news
On Fanpop.com viewers were
“Social media can be asked what news is most
used to get us accurate… Right, or first to
closer to the truth report. What is more
and they can be “The BBC new is the best. “ – important?
used to distort. They mimilovefoc
can be used to “I think it’s more likely
enlighten. They can “BBC news is unbiased; quality that news organizations
be used to stupefy.” newspapers are slightly biased have always wanted to
-Deverpost but allow you to make up your be first and right, but
own mind. So it really depends given the choice, first
on where I hear it. “ –Tweenacat wins out”.
“Closer to the truth”, -.Jeremy Porter,
is the important “News stations (Like BBC I Journalistics.
phrase to look at! agree) tend to try hard to be
unbiased” –Cinders
BBC won hands down, Fox
news was least favorable.

Big Brands are smart enough to
stay away from social media
How do big name companies play into media and how public portrays it?
Here are some Example of big name company
getting involved with media, without
examples why: researching these factors.
 It does not fit into
current structures. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B
mykFKjNpdY&feature=player_emb
 Communities and edded
content are global.
‘Motrin’ received backlash from
 No guaranteed results.
parents, disliking their objective to
portray children as fashion
 Social media needs a
symbols. If they would have done
long term approach. research they would have
recognized this was a bad idea.
-Tom Smith,Mashable Business.

Survey Questions
 1. Demographics of participant. (Age, gender)
 2. What is your favorite source of news,
television, radio, newspaper?
 3. Do you trust the news that is being delivered
to you?
 4. Which news station do you think is most
accurate?
 5. On a scale of 1-10 how accurate do you
think conventional news is?

Survey Questions Continued…
 6. Have you found falsehood with information
delivered from ‘your favorite’ news source?
 7. When do you believe news is most accurate
to the general public? (options: 1950’s, 1980’s,
2000, 2010, current)
 8. Does media withhold certain details from
all?
 9. Media is unbiased and truthful 100%
 10. We as the general public trust all news
being delivered to us via television, radio,
newspaper etc.

HYPOTHESIS for results
 2. I expect the results for question 2 would be
most people in favor of television.
 3. I expect most people would be neutral to
the question.
 4. I expect BBC would be most favorable
because of the research I did previously.
 5. I expect 5 or 6.
 6. I expect no.
 7. I expect 1980s for the most accuracy in
media.

HYPOTHESIS continued…
 8. I expect participants would think media
withholds information from all.
 9. I expect participants would think It was false
that media is 100% unbiased and truthful.
 10. I expect participants would think it is false
to trust all media delivered to us regardless of
its form.

Survey details
I sent my survey out to all of my facebook friends, in
hopes of receiving as many responses as possible. I
received 162 responses.

Survey results
1. Demographics.
Age Gender
18-29=42% Female=31%
30-39=31% Male=69%
40-49=19%
50+=8%

Survey results
 2. What is your favorite source of news,
television, radio, newspaper, internet?
Television=42%
Radio=19%
Newspaper=23%
Internet=12%
All of the above=4%

Survey results
 3. Do you trust the news that is being delivered
to you?
Yes=29%
No=64%
Neutral=7%

Survey results
 4. Which news station do you think is most
accurate?
BBC=12%
Fox News=39%
CNN=41%
ABC News=8%

Survey results
 5. On a scale of 1-10
how accurate do you
think conventional news
is?
1=2% 6=22%
2=7% 7=17%
3=1% 8=3%
4=29% 9=4%
5=13% 10=2%

Survey results
 6. Have you found falsehood with information
delivered from ‘your favorite’ news source?
Yes=25%
No=68%
N/A=7%

Survey results
 7. When do you believe news is most accurate
to the general public?
1950s=37%
1980s=19%
2000=21%
2010=13%
Current=10%

Survey results
 8. Does media withhold certain details from
all?
No=22%
Yes=53%
Certain people=18%
N/A=7%

Survey results
 9. Media is unbiased and truthful 100%
Yes=4%
No=86%
N/A=10%

Survey results
 10.We as the general public trust all news
being delivered to us via television, radio,
newspaper etc.
Yes=11%
No=87%
N/A=2%

How did my results coincide
with my HYPOTHESIS
2. I was correct saying that most 6. I was correct for question 6. I expected
participants would be in favor of participants believed a majority of the
television overall. news from their favorable source, finding
3. I was incorrect for my hypothesis on no flaws.
question 3. People said they do not trust 7. I was incorrect for question 7. I expected
news that is being delivered to them. I participants would believe media was
expected ‘neutral’ as the top pick and it most accurate during the 1980s, however
was actually least favorable. the 1950s won.
4. I was incorrect with my prediction for 8. I was correct for question 8. I expected
question 4. CNN won and Fox News was most people would think the media
runner up. withholds information from all.
5. I was incorrect with my prediction for 9. I was correct with my prediction for
question 5. Out of 1-10, 4 was the most question 9. I expected people would
popular choice. Lower than what I had choose that the media is not 100%
predicted. truthful.
10. I was correct for question 10. I expected
that participants would say they do not
trust all news that is being delivered.

ERRORS IN SURVEY
 Questions 3 and 10 are very similar; question
10 is a little more specific. However I wish I
would have created different questions to
gather more results.
 Question 8, I listed ‘No’ as an option before
‘Yes’, because I wanted to switch up the flow
and see if this effected any results. Generally
the ‘yes’ comes before. I believe this was not
the best time to test this theory when trying to
receive accurate results.

ERRORS IN SURVEY
 I also believe more questions were more
weighted towards the negative side. I do not
think the survey was 100% balanced like I had
planned.

Interviews
 After receiving all of my information from the survey’s I
wanted to see what participants thought of the
questions asked, and what their thoughts were, here
are some points of view…5 people were interviewed.
 Four out of five participants said that No and Yes being
placed differently in order for different questions
messed them up.
 2 participants said the survey questions leaned more
towards influencing its participants to believe media is
untrustworthy. The other 3 said it was ‘about fair’.

Interviews
 Interview participants that took the survey said
they liked that in question 6 I said, ““your
favorite” news source”. Because most tend to
believe the news they hear from their preferred
source and not trust rival news.
 5 out of 5 did not like question 9, because they
said ‘no one believes 100% everything they
hear from the media.’ (Denissa Laflemme)

Conclusion
 My study tells me that viewers believe at least
half the information they receive from
conventional news.
Results show most viewers are in the middle of the scale or more
towards the lower side of believing.
 Also my study shows that most viewers believe
the news that is being delivered to them as long
as it’s from their preferred source.
After conducting interviews and asking follow-up questions, I
learned this is because viewers develop a relationship with these
sources, and trust their insight and devotion.

Works Cited
 "Does News Accuracy Matter?" - Journalistics. Web. 29 Apr. 2012.
<http://blog.journalistics.com/2009/does-news-accuracy-matter/>.
 "Do You Believe Everything the News Media Tells You??" - Debate. Web. 29 Apr. 2012.
<http://www.fanpop.com/spots/debate/picks/results/18798/believe-everything-news-media-tells>.
 "Featured in Social Media." Mashable. Web. 29 Apr. 2012. <http://mashable.com/2009/02/20/big-
brands-social-media/>.
 "Google Images." Google. Web. 29 Apr. 2012. <http://www.google.com/imghp?hl=en>.
 Interview with Denissa LaFlemme, 229 Broad St, Auburn, Me. 4/8/12
 Interview with Hilary Boulier, 114 Vine St, Auburn, Me. 4/15/12
 Interview with Albert Toth, 115 Cotton Rd, Lewiston, Me. 4/8/12
 Interview with Amber Cox, 229 Broad St, Auburn, Me. 4/20/12
 Interview with Ralph Berabue, 45 Maxwell Rd, Litchfield, Me. 4/20/12
 "Latest Posts from the Denver Post Blogs." Colorado Breaking News, Sports, Weather, Traffic.
Web. 29 Apr. 2012. <http://www.denverpost.com/
 "MSP News."
Http://www.facebook.com/l.php?u=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ogHyqitwSp4h=2debb63eb
2f5cf687d48527e710fe43e Video by Twin Cities Siblings Parodies Kanye West. Web. 29 Apr.
2012. <http://www.mspnews.com/news/2009/09/17/4377038.htm>.