Hand Washing And The Shrinking Mind

Michael Hedges January 17, 2021 Follow on Twitter

The brightest minds, at least the busiest, continue to explore the decline of trust in, well, everything. Institutions are regularly named and shamed. Media is not spared. A level deeper are classes and races. Voices of doom chide the very idea of society. Not very pleasant stuff and those looking most deeply into it all are stuck for solutions.

Big public relations and communications consultancy Edelman released its Trust Barometer 2021 last week. Declaring Information Bankruptcy is the foreboding title of the company’s 21st annual report. The report is based on interviews with 33,000 persons in 27 countries between mid-October and mid-November augmented by further US interviews in December. Obviously, the coronavirus pandemic and resulting economic malaise figure prominently in the report.

Blame for the seemingly universal trust deficit is easily placed on the identified institutions. Edelman framed this, rather, as “information bankruptcy.” But big business, across the board, is more trusted, particularly their chief executives. The Edelman Trust Barometer a regular keynote presentation at the World Economic Forum (WEF) conclave of business captains usually held in Davos, Switzerland. This year the WEF is virtual.

“A majority of people around the world believe that journalists, government leaders and business leaders are all purposely trying to mislead people by spreading misinformation,” wrote Axios media critic Sara Fischer (January 13) summarizing the Edelman 2021 report. She noted, characteristically, that the problem isn’t only or emphatically with institutions. “Most people have terrible information hygiene, and admit that they don't actively verify information, avoid echo chambers or share things without first vetting information.”

Information hygiene is a term that popped up first in the later 1990’s, before social media dumped dirt (and worse) into the media sphere. Concurrent with the coronavirus and interest in all things hygienic it has risen again in the last year. People, it is said, are not so good at keeping their hands or their minds clean.

“The urgent issues confronting society require a knowledgeable public able to make choices based on unbiased information—not fear, compulsion or conspiracy theories,” wrote Edelman chief executive Ric Edelman in a preface to the data summary. “Every institution must play its part in restoring facts to their rightful place at the center of public discourse as the essential step to emerging from information bankruptcy.” Trust in traditional media, on aggregate, dropped to 53% of survey respondents. Japanese, Italian and Chinese had the lowest levels of trust. Barely one-third (35%) of respondents trust social media.

Communication from “my employer” is more trusted than traditional or social media, says the Edelman data. The socializing effect of employment is likely the overriding factor in this finding. Not surveyed were attitudes of the millions left economically disadvantaged (i.e. unemployed or underemployed) by the fallout from the coronavirus pandemic.

At least one former media executive pointedly skewered the media business itself for dislodging public trust. Following an interview with the Financial Times (January 16), former News Corp board member James Murdoch aimed high. “Many media property owners have as much responsibility for (spreading disinformation) as the elected officials who know the truth but choose instead to propagate lies. We hope the awful scenes we have all been seeing will finally convince those enablers to repudiate the toxic politics they have promoted once and forever.”

The Edelman Trust Barometer data isolated a population segment it calls the “informed public.” These are 25 to 65 year olds, university educated, upper income and “engaged” in public policy and business news.” They are 17% of the general populations and their views on trust differ distinctly from that whole. In two-thirds of the countries surveyed (21 of 27), institutional trust among the “informed public” segment is 16% higher than the general populations. The biggest differences are found in Australia, South Africa and France

“Particularly in times of turbulence and volatility,” concluded Ric Edelman, “trust is what holds society together and where growth rebuilds and rebounds. Every institution must play its part in restoring society and emerging from information bankruptcy.”

See also...

• Hot Topics - Disinformation

• Hot Topics - Media and the Virus

• Hot Topics - Social Media