How much trust do you have in media?

thats the point. you don't have to put trust in anything. you have the ability to question and confirm everything because the information resources are at your fingertips.

And that is true to a point.. but I do not have 20 hours a week to research everything I hear. For government info you can go there... but then it gets a little hard to read the details of a 800 page bill. There are always court transcripts after the fact. I could look into every reference provided by authors... but that is probably biased.

I guess what I'm saying is that information that uses studies, or supporting evidence, or legal proceedings... it is hard if you are not a subject matter expert to wade through all that data and come to a meaningful understanding for your self.

Obviously, you can just file away everything as someone's opinion on the matter when it comes to documentaries or subjects, but increasingly in the news these days opinion is presented as fact and it is hard to distinguish between the two.

The bigger question to me is what information is worth knowing. In the OP's example, unless you were somehow directly affected by the shooting, why does it matter to know what happened? Really, how is it any different than knowing whether or not some celebrity is out with no panties on, or who is getting married/divorced/fired?

Most "news" is just fancy gossip. It does not really affect your life in a meaningful way (MOST of it). The news that matters is the news that affects your day to day life. I would venture to say that the aggregated movie reviews make more impact in my life (since they will help me decide whether to watch the movie in the theater or add it to my Netflix queue) more so than (for a real life example) the front page story about the local DA shutting down a notorious nightclub known more for recent shootings and stabbings than the music, since I have never been to that club and have no interest in ever going to it.

And if something IS worth knowing, then it is worth looking at multiple sources (like the movie review aggregate sites look at multiple reviews). 

Crede sed proba (Trust but verify)

A pretty good way to live most aspects of your life IMO.

To those that say "none" or "not at all" I don't buy it.

So when the traffic lady in the AM tells you that the interstate is jammed up do you ignore her and wait till the last second to leave the house? 

When the weatherman tells you it's going to rain today do you ignore him and leave the umbrella at home?

When the news reports that people were shot at a theater in CO do you question that it really happened?

Of course not.  Now, do you question the details of the reports?  Of course.  You should.  And you should verify it for yourself or by multiple sources.  Trust but verify.

But to say you do not trust media AT ALL is just silly IMO.

the problem in my mind is that there's too much info out there.  there are too many newspapers, reporters, bloggers, tv anchors, etc. that are all competing for an audience.  each one searching for a way to make their story unique so it pulls audience from another.  that's when stories, no matter how much they affect someone's day-to-day life, get glorified, exaggerated, left out, twisted, etc. 

compound that over the years as more and more "media outlets" pop up because of the web and other new tools...then combine that with advertisers/politicians paying crazy money for add spots and you can see how presenting news and information to the public loses it's credibility.

Who is "the media"? Trust them to do what?

I value the information I get from some sources, discount bits from other sources. I can separate opinion from fact, and find too much of the former and too little of the latter.

When you refer to media...I assume "main-stream media" and that is where I am basing my response. 

For the most part I trust the media to bring me the news of events.  The accuracy of the details...not so much.  If it's something I am interested in I will do some research on my own.  Where I do not trust the media is in reporting politics and the economy.  Every media out let is biased!  I especially don't trust CNBC and all their talking heads talking about the economy, banks and wallstreet.  However, there must be some trust there for some people because they continue to have a following and are keeping their jobs.

Exactly this.  I'm constantly surprised and what people will sit down and watch and consider it "news." 

news is not news - much of it is placements...

being someone who goes on the news regularly I assure you nothing to trust

Awesome.

This is how I feel.  You can tell their bias not just by the way they report their stories ...but also just by looking at the stories that they choose to report. 

I took a few classes in college on News Reporting and loved it.  It made me wish I had thought about it as a career.  It was pounded in our heads that news reporting is supposed to be the reporting of facts...no personal bias.  And those facts must be verified.  Everything has a bias now and many times, the facts have not been confirmed.  It's all about who can get the story out first....and who cares about the actual facts.   I am glad I'm not a part of the industry now.

Not looking for an argument, but seriously curious as to why not?  They spit out stats like it's a baseball game and typically have a righty, a lefty, and a moderator.  Granted all stats are open to interpretation, but 1) they don't typically pull out obscure stats or metrics, it's pretty much what everyone uses as metrics for decision making and 2) I've only found them lean toward business, but that's kind of an obvious given, it's pretty easy for me to separate out that hoopla.

Asking because I don't mind getting schooled. 

Trust them as it relates to all history in-fact.  They'll be announcing the US Pro Cycling Challenge as well as cycling in the Olympics I'm sure.  How good would it be to have them report on something they know nothing about.  Like Fencing or Table Tennis?