It’s been shared many times: the New Yorker cartoon that says, “My desire to be informed is currently at odds with my desire to stay sane.”
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The New Yorker cartoon resonates with so many of us because much of what passes for “news” today isn’t journalism - it’s noise. It’s a business model designed to keep us in an agitated state of outrage and always coming back for more.
Corporate media and social media companies supported by high-dollar advertisers bear a lot of responsibility. Check out The Social Dilemma on Netflix if you want to freak out about how and why you often find your day or your emotions hijacked when you get online.
Regardless of how much it’s all designed to manipulate our thoughts and feelings, we still have the ability to push back by becoming a more discerning consumer of news.
We need to stay informed and we can do it by being more intentional in our decisions, sometimes without even thinking - to like (or dislike), share or comment on something we see online.
Some things to think about:
You've seen the laments on Facebook that says Walter Cronkite never gave an opinion on CBS, he just read the news.
I’ll ignore, for the moment, just how Walter Cronkite would react to being reduced to a pithy Facebook post that lacks context. There is a lot of truth to the statement (at least until it famously wasn’t).
“There was the notion that you could get reliable, accurate information delivered calmly and dispassionately by all of the networks,” David Ward, a historian at the National Portrait Gallery said in Smithsonian magazine.
That’s because as late as the 1970s, news wasn’t a business for the three broadcast networks. It was a prestigious loss leader. And by prestige, I mean the Big Three networks were aware of the democratic threat posed by having only three entities influencing public opinion and elections. They respected that power.
If that’s the way it was, as the legendary CBS newsman might say, it is not the way it is. “What most people think of as 'the news' is, in fact, a twisted wing of the entertainment business,” says journalist Matt Taibbi in his 2019 book Hate Inc.
Of course, sensational or “yellow” journalism is almost as old as the concept of journalism itself. (Don Henley can tell you more about that here.) Way back in my college broadcast journalism class, we knew that "if it bleeds, it leads."
What is new and ferocious is the Internet, combined with a news-o-tainment business model that needs us to keep us watching, listening, reading, clicking, and sharing.
The KPIs of the news-o-tainment business model are likes, clicks, video views, time-on-site and social shares. If this sounds a lot like content marketing, that's because content marketing is the media model: content that attracts and sustains an audience.
Deep dives into the complex topics behind the outrage machines don't attract as many eyeballs as outrage. Social media posts that enrage get more engagement and shares than thoughtful long-form reporting on the issue people are fighting each other about.
Today a “successful” news organization is no longer a prestige loss leader in support of having a vigorous free press in a functioning democracy. It's a click machine, according to the 2019 study The Impact of Web Metrics on Community News Decisions.
Then there’s the echo chamber. An audience that only wants to hear news that reinforces their beliefs can easily find it, because search and social algorithms are designed for platforms to target very specific content to specific people all day long.
Which makes it hard to find the truth. On any given news day, Google the headlines of the day and behold the wide range of spin across the Ad Fontes Media Bias Chart®
It starts by weaning yourself off the more toxic elements of your news diet. If you’re a political junkie like me, it’s okay to have a little red meat every now and then, but you’ll feel a whole lot better if you avoid the most agitating news sources.
The best guide to moderate your news diet is the aforementioned continually updated Media Bias Chart by Ad Fontes Media. Media in the top green box is your best bet for less biased, more factual national and international news and you can evaluate the reporting in the context of the bias.
The Media Bias Chart should also be your go-to to check the veracity and bias of articles shared on your social channels.
More tips for a balanced news diet:
If you believe a news report legitimately keeps the powerful accountable, but it’s covered in a news source you consider to be biased, you’re probably right. That’s the business model we talked about above. That doesn’t necessarily mean it isn’t important for you to read. Why?
In case we weren’t clear about this in our earlier post about Facebook #StopTheHate:
There is no reason--ever!--to share articles by saying, “I don’t know if this is true or not, but…”
Journalists are not the problem. I repeat: journalists are not the problem.
The problem is the news business model. Most journalists are dedicated, dogged truth-tellers who got into the profession from a desire to serve the public good. I know, I started my career as a journalist. The journalists we work with every day are doing their best working in a tough business model, usually for not great pay.
Some are not willing to do it any longer, opting out of news-o-tainment and going back to what they do: reporting. They sell subscriptions directly on platforms such as Substack or broadcast via social media channels, such as Momcast and News without Noise. Understanding this sea-change in media business models figures prominently into why PR has evolved.
In conclusion, a functioning republic needs a well-informed citizenry. It is not a passive act on our part to stay informed, and getting outside our comfort zone doesn’t always feel great.
Do it anyway. Consider it self-care for our country.
Related Resources:
The Fall, Rise, and Fall of Media Trust; Columbia Journalism Review, Winter 2019
Pew Research on Journalism & Media
Pen America’s Guide For Combating Protest Disinformation