News for the Powerful and Privileged: How Misrepresentation and Underrepresentation of Disadvantaged Communities Undermine Their Trust in News

Abstract

This report draws on 41 focus groups with marginalised and/or underserved audiences in Brazil, India, the UK, and the US to examine how differences along lines of race, caste, religion, class, and place affect perceptions of trustworthy journalism. We highlight commonalities among participants rooted in distinct experiences, needs, and expectations that lead them to perceive news as representing their communities negatively, unfairly, stereotypically, or in divisive or altogether absent ways entirely. In some countries, grievances around deficient or harmful coverage were often intertwined with perceptions of the news media as extensions of broader power structures and impressions of journalists as privileged and out of touch. Finally, we show that many saw news media as intentionally mistreating people from disadvantaged communities while consistently catering to other more powerful audiences, and we summarise what participants recommended as possible solutions for building or restoring their trust.