Let’s Get Moving Forward
By Alan Nero
Over the last three months, I’ve written seven articles regarding the issues journalists face in trying to survive the digital revolution and “Fake News” era.
As well as the solutions to overcome these challenges. To cap off this series, I’ve compiled the four most important points below to construct a roadmap to survival for existent media organizations and aspiring journalists alike. Let’s get moving forward.
1) Rid yourself of commercial shackles.
Media companies, dependent upon corporate sponsors, skew their reportage according to sponsors’ interests through overtly biased reporting. Even more dangerous are news conglomerates like the Sinclair Broadcast Group, which force local news stations to broadcast crooked coverage tailored to the owners’ whims. As a direct result, public trust in the media has fallen by 42% according to the Knight Foundation.
Distancing yourself from corporate dependency preserves both journalistic freedom and integrity. The most streamlined means to do so is implementing a membership program for your news site. Organizations such as De Correspondent, Billy Penn, Denverite, and Incline are staunch examples of the success to be had. In case uncertainty over how to proceed has you hesitant, the News Revenue Hub has produced a proven game plan to help hopeful independent journalists realize their goals.
2) Take the time to get it right.
The race to report breaking news first has become an unhealthy obsession in the age of the internet. Journalists and media organizations alike have sacrificed accuracy, one of the three ethical pillars of the practice, for the sake of speed. The growing overabundance of errors has fanned the flames of the “Fake News” panic. While deadlines are an obviously important facet of reporting, accuracy is quickly becoming a lost art.
By taking the time to ensure your reportage is entirely accurate, you will not only set yourself apart from repeat offenders, you will compound upon your reputation for reliability.
3) Abandon the Objectivity Paradox.
Objectivity is the most loaded term in journalism. Any solid piece of journalism requires the suspension of objectivity for the sake of interest and passion in a story worth investigating. Yet reporters are discredited for not falsely appearing as if they’ve suspended all interest and involvement in the pursuit of a story.
As the public and industry have yet to abandon evaluating their journalists according to a paradox, there’s no citable precedent for new metrics. However, gauging your work, and that of fellow journalists, on honesty, accuracy, and equity will remove the objectivity paradox from the industry vernacular and push journalists to rise to new standards.
4) Diversify and deliver to your base.
The U.S. is constantly playing cultural catch-up toward the ends of equity. Our newsrooms are no exception. The 2018 survey from the American Society of News Editors shows the demographics of our media companies are still dominated by white men. Especially in leadership roles. Unfortunately, this means that vast swaths of our communities are being horribly underrepresented in the media.
For journalism to survive the myriad challenges our society faces, one of the most important changes necessary for all media companies to make is to further diversify their leadership and staff to better represent the communities which they serve.
Journalists face a long road ahead, filled with pitfalls, challenges, and the daunting trial of progressive change. Though following this road map, or another similar, should safely guide us toward a truer golden age than ever previously thought possible.
