Media Has a Responsibility to Better Communicate What It is Presenting
An effective way forward for legacy media in an attempt to inspire clarity
The narrative about what content is fact and what isn’t in media has been a dominant part of the national discussion pre-and-post election. The question is, what can industry leaders do to assist audiences improve understanding on the country’s issues.
“There isn't a media executive that doesn't know that there's a problem,” former CNN CEO Chris Licht told Seana Smith, the host of “Morning Brief” and “Catalysts” at the Yahoo Finance Invest conference. “There isn't a media executive that isn't actively working on that problem.”
Licht, who was fired from CNN in June 2023, and has not yet returned to media, says there is confusion in people’s interpretations.
"There are trusted sources of information and then there's trusted opinion and I think those two worlds need to be very separate,' he told Yahoo Finance.
"I think part of the problem is they've kind of co-mingled and you know media organizations will try very hard to say: 'No, no, no, this is our newsgathering and this is our opinion,' but in the world, people don't make that distinction I have found.”
The objective, he suggests, is clear even if the path yet isn’t fully defined.
"Someone's got to figure out how to restore trust and that ‘these are the facts’ and then let people go and have their opinions,” Licht says.
There is an national argument that consumers may not recognize and understand what is news and what is opinion because of a blurring of the lines between them.
“It's increasingly challenging to expect all consumers of television news media to clearly distinguish between news and opinion,” says Karolina Króliczek, the founder of PR Insight, a bilingual Polish PR and digital PR agency based in London. “Some people simply do not have the ability to make this distinction.
“Experienced PR (public relations) professionals might struggle to spot the differences, particularly when it comes to the rise of fake news, which is growing and largely unregulated.”
Another professional sees it differently.
“We all learn to distinguish fact and opinion from an early age,” says Jonathon Narvey, the founder and CEO at Vancouver, British Columbia-based Mind Meld PR.
He poses a common question in response to the problem.
“How do we know these facts?” Narvey asks. “It's a contentious process and one in which consensus is no substitute for a correct answer.”
Learning to differentiate between trusted sources of information and trusted opinion, as Licht suggests, can be a tall task.
“It requires a combination of vigilance, critical thinking and media literacy,” Króliczek advises. “By evaluating sources, scrutinizing content and actively seeking diverse viewpoints, you can make informed judgments about what to trust and how to interpret it.”
Skillful discerning can reveal reason to pause and examine further.
“Ongoing observation of the content being produced and identifying any drastic, rapid changes might be a red flag that the news source is not trustworthy,” she adds.
“See if one person's facts or opinions line up with the reality,” Narvey reasons. “In the wake of the election, where one side perhaps thought that a radically different outcome was in the offing, there are many people right now who are quite properly ditching their old sources of information and are searching out new ones online and in the real world.”
Co-mingling news and opinion, as Licht says, is dangerous to media credibility and trust and unhelpful to society’s understanding of the news because of how easy emotions and psychology impacts conclusions.
“It poses significant challenges for audiences in discerning fact from interpretation, leading to potential misinformation and misunderstanding,” Króliczek says.
Opinionated communication from outlets is however, by itself, not a negative.
“There's nothing wrong with a news organization having a particular stance,” Narvey says. “All news publishers have a reason they got into the business and part of that is promoting a certain worldview.”
It does show responsibility and ethics when it is clearly and boldly communicated to the public precisely what they are viewing, reading or hearing.
“It only takes a second or two to remind your audience that you're giving an opinion, if that is what you want to do,” Narvey recommends.
A reliable way forward to improvement is being steadfastly forthright about what is being communicated.
“Labeling and formatting content transparently can be an effective way to distinguish news from opinion and create clear boundaries for the audience,” Króliczek says.
“Using prominent labels such as Opinion, Analysis or Editorial on articles, broadcasts and digital content signals the type of content being presented and makes it easier for the general public to classify the news without taking the story for granted.”
“Just be honest about what it is you're doing,” Narvey says. “The audience will either choose you or go elsewhere.”
The inflection point with media is demanding attention and immediate, if not emergency, course correction.
“Right now, the media industry is doing a lot of soul searching,” Narvey says. “Do we change format? Do we ditch the on-air talent and go for a different kind of presenter? They're scrambling not just to beat the competition but really just to survive.”
He provides an example of what could be argued is a helpful case study.
“The one-man show who never claimed to be a journalist but is hated by journalists for beating them at their own game: Joe Rogan. The secret to Joe's success, which I think legacy media commentators could emulate, boils down to a few elements: a genuine curiosity and also a generosity of spirit,” Narvey contends.
Narvey elaborates as to why Rogan’s approach should be discussed and considered.
“He doesn't usually spout off his own facts because the point of the show is to discover what this other person and their expertise are all about,” Narvey explains.
“When he's talking from experience, he says so. When he wants to show facts, he'll show what he thinks to be a credible source: ‘Pull it up, Jamie!’ And frequently, he looks for other sources live. He's not afraid to change his mind in real time.
“These are all qualities you'd want to see in a news opinion show, whether the segment is 3 hours or 3 minutes.”
He offers simple suggestions for what will be communicated next.
“Whether you're doing hard news reporting as an anchor or commentating on the fly, you can cover the basics, like literally announcing at the intro that you're about to hear the ‘news of the day or ‘my opinion, right or wrong.’” Narvey proposes.
“That sets the framework right from the start.”
What isn’t beneficial to the consumer and is a disservice, he asserts, is where there is an emotional lack of self control within a group discussion.
“Possibly the worst form of opinion-peddling I see on TV are the panels where you get 3 or 4 — or maybe even 6 people — all shouting at each other,” Narvey says.
“Humans are terrible at critical thinking but we're absolutely fantastic at sussing (sic) out the dominant opinion.”
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