I get the impression that the moment I identify myself as a journalist or reporter to a person, their moods shift from friendly to guarded or openly hostile, like I’m a potential threat or enemy in an open war. Like it or not, it seems like Trump was speaking for many Americans when he said he considered the press the enemy of the people.
Anecdotally, I’ve had some coworkers tell me they avoid describing themselves to people with the word “journalist” to avoid the negative associations that people have with it, preferring to call themselves “writers” and such.
You’ll see people bemoaning the loss of public trust in the media, but really, it’s a decline in trust in general. But particularly in institutions and professionals. I think that, as Sean Illing put it in a Vox podcast a couple years ago, “Americans don’t trust experts” anymore.
