BBC Bashir survey feeds trust deficit

The public's trust in institutions is also built on a perceived commitment to the common good. The most respected organisations are those that are seen to act in the best interests of the broadest cross-section of society.

Hence the high respect most societies pay to medicos. Despite their often handsome pay-packets, these professionals are thought to behave in altruistic ways. The pandemic certainly heightened that perception - and in most cases, it probably proved to be accurate.

In contrast to this, in the eyes of some people, today's media cater mainly to the whims of elite minorities or particular political interests. It's often said, in debates about social cohesion, that the existence of a dominant culture isn't a problem unless people forget that they have one. This will lead them to insist that their way of seeing or doing things is the only right way.

Arguably, all media groups feature some bias from time to time, because they're made up of human beings. This becomes a major problem, though, when the same groups refuse to admit the possibility of biases in their culture, which prevents them from correcting their prejudices.

Biases are not always based on attitudes to politics. They can also be seen in us-and-them dynamics within organisations. Certain senior figures in the BBC's recent past circled the wagons around Bashir because of a bias against what they saw as discordant voices.

The trust deficit also has a generational aspect. The Millennial generation, aged today in their late twenties to early forties, has been a highly nurtured one, relatively speaking.

They're the most watched and in many ways protected generation in modern times, often for good reason. They're the first generation to have had CCTV cameras pointed at them at almost every turn, at least in major cities.

As a result, they place a high premium on trust. It's no accident that this generation has helped drive the search for a new ethic, which focuses on environmental and emerging human rights issues.

Generation Z follows the Millennials. The top end of this cohort makes up today's university undergraduates and younger teens. Studies reveal them to be a very pragmatic generation, one that seeks reform on many levels.

The fact that Millennials and Gen-Z are also the first media-globalised generations, means that they're constantly surrounded by news of wall-to-wall leadership scandals and crises. The pace of news delivery can make them feel that they're never being fully informed on any of those stories, that there's always something they're not being told.

So while they're acutely aware of ethical issues, many of them are given little reason to trust people beyond a close circle of friends.

At the core of the Martin Bashir debacle lie two words. They're small words that carry huge significance for healthy societies: trust and ethics. There are no good excuses for the behaviour of Mr Bashir or those in management who effectively covered for it. Theirs are not failures of society, but individuals.

Yet there is already a society-wide trend toward mistrust. The trust deficit in the UK is a phenomenon in which the media is a contributor. As a result, it has and will become a victim.

Without the currency of trust, society fails to function and institutions cannot deliver their services effectively. People want to trust the media. Let's make it easier for them to do so.