Myanmar's media from an audience perspective / 17 Table 3: Overview of mentioned media according to regions and topics a b Yangon Mandalay Rakhine Kachin Preferred news sources DVB Facebook YouTube Local market MNTV Channel 9 MRTV Narinjara Myitkyina News Journal Kachin News BBC DVB 7 Days VOA MRTV Facebook DVB MNTV MRTV The mirror VOA Facebook Padamyar FM (rural) BBC MRTV Myanmar A Linn The Mirror Facebook Trusted news sources (BBC) a Friends and family DVB Kachin News Myitkyina News Journal Friends and family DVB State-owned media Eye-witnesses State-owned media MRTV DVB (BBC) a News sources with least trust (BBC) a Facebook (BBC) a (BBC) a Facebook YouTube Myawaddy Daily b (BBC) a Facebook BBC are placed in brackets throughout the table as people were somewhat conflicted about whether the media could be trusted or not.As explained in the text below, people used to consider BBC as one of the most trustworthy news outlets but BBC’s recent coverage of the conflicts in country had disappointed many. They felt that BBC did not provide a correct image of the conflicts. Yet, due to the past reputation of BBC people are not ready to fully disregard the news outlet. Trust in Myawaddy Daily had been tainted due to a recent scandal where the newspaper misappropriated an image showing IDPs crossing a river into safety to illustrate a story with the headline “Increased number of tourists in Ngwe Saung Elephant Camp”. Yangon-based media are for many people living outside of the bigger cities not relevant news sources. People feel that these media do not present them with news or information that pertains to their daily lives and challenges and that they are often too elitist in their reporting. One media outlet did, however, seem to carry itself well among respondents across the different states. DVB was highlighted by several people in both Rakhine, Kachin and Mandalay as being very good at reporting from the local areas. In Kachin, Myitkyina News Journal and Kachin News received similar praise. People felt that they were represented fairly by these media outlets and could therefore trust them more. Proximity to events is clearly something that is being appreciated by audiences and elevates trust. “DVB comes as soon as possible to the area to get news in a case of something happening,” (46-year-old woman from rural Mandalay). “We rely on DVB for news. As the news is presented with an eyewitness account, they cannot lie.” (44-year-old woman and 33-year-old woman from urban Rakhine).

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