(source: Sme)
As much as 76 percent of Slovaks believe the information presented by the media is believable. Moreover, 51 percent think that public media is more objective than private media.
Only a quarter is interested in who owns the media, as stems from a poll carried out by the Focus agency for the Centre for Independent and Objective Journalism (CenPress) between November 7 and 14, on 1,012 respondents.
It also surveyed how prestigious the journalist profession is in the eyes of Slovaks, the TASR newswire reported.
Television wins
“The poll has confirmed that television networks are among the key sources of political and social information,” said Martin Slosiarik of Focus, as quoted by TASR.
Out of the hundreds of spontaneously mentioned media, 41 percent of respondents claimed private broadcaster TV Markíza is the source of their information on political and social affairs. The public-service broadcaster RTVS came second with 33 percent, followed by the private TV JOJ with 31 percent and the TA3 news channel with 22 percent.
Rádio Slovensko, as the first radio station appearing in the survey, came fifth with 13 percent.
The Nový Čas tabloid daily is the most popular print medium from which to obtain political information, which was mentioned by 12 percent of the respondents, TASR reported.
Journalist wins over police officer
The profession of a journalist lags behind in perception in terms of the prestige of professions such as doctor, a fire-fighter, scientist, teacher, or farmer.
Yet, it is higher than police officer, official or priest.
“Among the most frequent reasons reducing the prestige of journalists are objectivity, deception or manipulation,” said Slosiarik, as quoted by TASR, naming unethicality, amorality, and an effort to seek sensation at any price as other reasons.
More than half of the respondents were able to name three Slovak journalists.
“On the contrary, 46 percent of people could not remember or name any journalist,” he added, as quoted by TASR.
