[More of a poll, than a discussion] Do you trust the media?

Elaborate, I wanna know!

lol Who trusts the media? Clearly no one here really. The press might be free, but their bosses have agendas, and they make sure their agendas are pushed onto the populous. Really simple honestly.

Assuming that media can be objective is usually wrong. Even if you can't say that it's one giant lie 24/7, most of the time opinion is biased, shown from one angle, one perspective, or is meant to convince/persuade you into believing thing they want you to believe, or share the same opinion.

I had a material in my local TV lately, which tried to show one of local youtubers in very bad light. They mentioned every single bad thing, repeated same video part over and over again, and didn't say anything about the fact that the same guy organized giant charity events helping children and other local fundations, or even the fact that shown "hate" is maybe 1% of his entire youtube content.

To me, it was very biased material that was meant to trigger bad feelings about that particular guy. You can't be objective stating that the guy is bad while showing only selected facts from his life. And because TV is the biggest media that exists up to this day, I feel like they should have some damn responsibility because less intelligent people follow it almost blindly. It's really not any different than classical propaganda, just with more liberal voice and and not praising the government. Opinion is still based on who pays most for given material, and those materials are usually meant to be dramatic, because that is most interesting and gathers most people.

So, yeah. I don't watch TV, I don't read newspapers, and I base my opinion on facts, not opinion stated by other people. Not to mention that I carefully verify those facts and do not trust them blindly as well.

A) this very much depends on which country you are in
B) I'd say it's mostly true, but
C) the media will put its own spin on things

So, three different sources will give you three different versions of the same story. Not only giving their own opinions, but also choosing what to omit or what to add. As an easy example, if there is an event in Palestine, you'll get a very different story in an Israeli newspaper (evil terrorist attacks innocent israelis) than you would in a Saudi Arabian newspaper (martyr provoked by Israeli aggression).

Neither version is an outright lie, but neither version is telling the whole truth either.

SG ate my comment :(

Most reputable news sources don't lie, but you should be aware of them not always telling the whole truth. Someone at some point down the line decides what's worth reporting on, and what parts are worth bringing up, and what should be left out. This is why it's a good idea to seek information from several sources, at least for news that can be considered a bit controversial, sources from several different countries if possible.
Some news sources are worse than others when it comes to this bias. Pravda.ru & Fox are probably the two most notorious ones, both often pushing a very clear agenda (Pravda also likes fabricating news to push their agenda, so really, don't give that site any traffic, it's worse than Daily mail).

edit
RT is another one of those that should be avoided, if the fact that several reporters quit because they did not want to fabricate news is anything to go by.

I live in a country you can`t trust who holds the power. Power controls everything including media. Pretty much everything on media is pure BS, licking every part of the power without pride or concern of future.

no, i don't trust anything they say.
war, politics, anything that involves money will have false information.

No. There are some worst than others, but overall they are all bs (please stay away from the Huffington Post. PLEASE). Tv talks and variety shows are no less. Nothing is immune to political and ideological propaganda. I only watch tv only for documentary with animals, nature, space and such, but I always stay alert.

I used to work as a newspaper editor, and for small, local courts stories, I trust them to report on the facts. For actual bigger stories that matter ... no, I don't really. I've seen first hand how much the politics of the group that owns the newspaper gets factored in.

No, I try to gather my news from a variety of different sources, including independent and international. Everyone has a slant, but the major networks are as good as useless with the propaganda they're trying to promote.

Local? Yes, for the most part.
National? No.
World? Hell, no.

If you mean traditional media (newspaper, tv, big portals) then that's a big NO. I don't even own a tv set. It's been 2 years since I watched the news for the last time, and even then it was something I did 'by accident'.

I don't keep up with the news, most of that stuff shouldn't be trusted. I don't use social media, but on Steam, you can't trust anyone, everyone lies about everything. So yeah, I don't really trust the media.

I don't even watch TV anymore. I only read news in form of FB posts, because they are ridiculous in my country.
A 30 minute long "news" consists of brutal murder, revenge murder, roadkill, jealous murder etc, and at the end a new animal was born in a zoo god knows where. Oh, and if there is something political, then it has 1 or 2 blocks of coverage. TV shows here are just idiotic (The Farm, Budapest All Night and stuff). The TV here is mainly used to broadcast the governement's propaganda campaign.

So-so. I really don't keep up with the news at all, but sometimes I hear about news like "[plane] goes missing over [location]". I can't deny that news, and I'm pretty sure it isn't bullshit. I mean, they don't know for sure what happened and other sources confirm it as well. Not going to get my tinfoil hat out over this. As for the rest, I rarely read/watch/listen to any news.

"Media only tells you half the truth. Wanna know another half? Do your homework" (c) banner put by Syrian people regarding lies in certain Western media.

So yeah, I'm doing my homework. Thankfully, I have enough friends, relatives and other contacts in various places to get my information firsthand.

I don't particuarly like the guy a lot but he is so damm right here
(From the moment printery was invented press freedom is the willing of the printery owner)

View attached image.

media : if you have money , you can make anything become "true"

I just take everything with a grain of salt because you can count on information being spun to influence the consumer.

I can't give a single, simple answer. There are so many things that influence the credence I give a source. For a start "the media" is an umbrella term that covers thousands of sources of content. I trust some sources more than other, some writers more than others, some types of reporting more than others.

There are SOME bits of the media that I think provide reliable, if fallible, information on SOME topics.

Most stories are somewhat true but with heavy exaggeration (at least in the USA)

I'm kind of a news junkie, I read all kind of newspapers from my own country. I pick them by their quality and not by their political positions. Luckily we have a great selection of quality newspapers here in Germany. On top of that I also read plenty from the UK and US. I'd rate the media in those countries more critical though. In the UK print media is terrible, with very few exceptions. In the USA print is better, but TV more problematic.

My overall judgement would be that the media is very helpful and trustworthy, if you don't decide to base all your judgments on one source only, and if you manage to recognize and sort out the bad apples. Accept all input and then form your own opinion. Sadly most people don't seem to manage that, either because it is very time consuming, or because they simply aren't interested enough.

No, the majority of the media only covers stories that makes them money and they will embellish or lie if it will make them more money. Sadly it's all about the money (what else is new?) and rarely about the truth.

Hmm, I wish there was an option for "mostly no." Not everything on the media is a lie, but newspaper journalists and newsmen tell more lies than truths. Usually when something is true though, it's just a diversion to cover up major issues that are going on. The government ultimately decides what the media can and can't cover, so they would never allow public announcements of their corruption and mistakes.