Sociology Now, Census Update

WHAT DOES AMERICA THINK? 615

18.1 Confidence in Press

These are actual survey data from the General Social Survey, 2004.

As far as the people running the press are concerned, would you say you have

a great deal of confidence, only some confidence, or hardly any confidence at

all in them?The GSS survey results for 2004 indicate that almost 44 percent of

the population has hardly any confidence in the press. Almost half of respondents

had only some confidence in the press. Those in the upper class were most likely to

reporting having a great deal of confidence in the press and at the same time were

also the group most likely to report having very little confidence in the press. The

percentage of respondents reporting confidence in the press has steadily declined

since 1972 for all social class categories.

CRITICAL THINKING|DISCUSSION QUESTION

1. Take a good look at the social class differences in responses. They are complex. How do you
   explain them?

18.2 Free Press

These are actual survey data from the General Social Survey, 2002.

Which of these three statements comes closest to your feelings about balanc-

ing freedom of the press and the right to privacy?In the 2000 General Social

Survey, just over 20 percent of respondents felt there should complete freedom of

the press, even if the press sometimes invades the privacy of public figures. Sixty-

four percent of the respondents felt the press should develop a code of ethics to

keep it from invading the privacy of public figures. Almost 15 percent of respon-

dents thought the government should keep the press from printing stories that

invade the privacy of public figures. Respondents who identified as lower class

were least likely to support complete freedom of the press.

CRITICAL THINKING|DISCUSSION QUESTION

1. Respondents in the middle class were least likely to favor government censoring of the
   press, while those in the lower class were most likely to favor it. How do you explain these
   social class differences?

What

does

America

think

?

3 Go to this website to look further at the data. You can run your own statistics and crosstabs

here: http://sda.berkeley.edu/cgi-bin/hsda?harcsda+gss04

REFERENCES:Davis, James A., Tom W. Smith, and Peter V. Marsden. General Social Surveys

1972–2004: [Cumulative file] [Computer file]. 2nd ICPSR version. Chicago, IL: National Opinion Research

Center [producer], 2005; Storrs, CT: Roper Center for Public Opinion Research, University of Connecticut;

Ann Arbor, MI: Inter-University Consortium for Political and Social Research; Berkeley, CA: Computer-Assisted

Survey Methods Program, University of California [distributors], 2005.