Reporters Become Regulators: The Power of the Press

Just ask big tech

Everyone agrees: big tech must be regulated. Breaking up the biggest companies, protecting data and privacy, moderating content, responsibly using AI…the list goes on. Just this week, Mark Zuckerburg issued his own call to action for regulation.

As the speed of tech outpaces law, high-profile reporting has filled the gap by influencing the fastest changes we’ve seen from the industry so far.

Axios has the data points:

Nearly every major tech company (YouTube, Facebook, Pinterest, Amazon, etc.) has changed its policies…to address anti-vaccination content that has littered those platforms.

Facebook’s privacy pivot announcement …follows a barrage of bad headlines over the way Facebook treats user data.

And YouTube, one of Facebook’s biggest video rivals, announced a massive change… to disable comments on all videos of children under the age of 18. The move came after a damning media story was published by Wired about ways YouTube comments are used by child exploitation rings.

Bernard Cohen, American political scientist and educator, observed that the press has the power to direct attention towards “what to think about” rather than exactly“what to think.” But media shapes reality instead of reflecting it.

What this means for PR and communicators: if you feel like your job doesn’t matter, think again! We wield influence when it comes to setting the agenda, especially in Silicon Valley. From a proactive trend pitch to reactive crisis comms, what we say and how we say it matters. Trust and relationships with reporters matter. And we have an ethical responsibility to exercise this power responsibly.

As media scrutiny continues, the messages that brands send and the actions they take will impact what consumers and regulators think, and ultimately affect their actions.