Confidence rating of Russian journalists grows in past two years

(Interfax – January 11, 2013)

Moscow – Journalism is an important and necessary profession that enjoys public confidence but it is not very profitable, said Russians polled by the Russian Public Opinion Study Center (VTsIOM) ahead of the Russian Press Day marked on January 13.

“Russians have less confidence in journalists than in scientists or teachers,” says a VTsIOM press release obtained by Interfax on Friday.

“The average confidence rating of reporters is 3.25 points, while the indicators stand at 3.89 points for scientists and 3.83 points for teachers,” VTsIOM experts said. They polled 1,600 people in 138 towns and cities in 46 regions.

The sociologists asked the respondents to evaluate journalism and other professions on a five-point scale.

The confidence rating of journalists has grown from 2.95 points over the past two years.

The rating is higher for clerics (3.61), servicemen (3.59) and doctors (3.53) and smaller for civil servants (2.67), police officers and businessmen (2.65) and politicians (2.58).

Most of the respondents describe journalism as a socially significant profession (3.77 points as against 3.89 in 2011). The prestige of journalists has dropped a bit (from 3.70 to 3.53), same as the opinion of the profitability of journalism (from 3.55 to 3.39). The market demand for journalists gained 3.54 points, as against 3.47 earlier.