We can’t have greater news literacy without better business models
There is no single fix to the compounding challenge of disinformation, but a better business model for journalism that keeps journalists in newsrooms when they are most needed is certainly a piece.
For a long year journalists have faced several contradicting challenges. A pandemic meant an all-time high demand for journalism, but the corresponding recession left newsrooms with fewer staff members to report, edit and produce journalism.
According to the Poynter Institute, at least 60 local newsrooms closed in 2020. Although it’s difficult to quantify the number of media jobs lost during the pandemic, Poynter’s Kristen Hare, on the list she maintains, specifies at least 4,500.
Read personal remarks from several of them, some disconsolate about having to garner an income in a far less rewarding occupation.
Many journalists who kept their jobs faced pay cuts and furloughs. Meanwhile the nature of their work became increasingly divisive as public health orders became political.
Ross Terrell, news editor at KUER public radio in Salt Lake City, said he sensed the audience distrust. It informed his approach to journalism. Instead of positioning his reporters to simply be interpreters in the exchange of information, he tried to make that information more directly accessible.
He broadcasted the Utah governor’s pandemic response press conferences live in hopes of overcoming the perception of bias among his audience.
“We are going to remove ourselves — that is one way you can hear the facts yourselves,” Terrell said of the decision.
However, he conceded that tactic required responsible and articulate politicians who didn’t contribute to the spread of pandemic-related falsehoods.
Then, there were the protests following the death of George Floyd, which corresponded with the 2020 presidential campaigns of Donald Trump and Joe Biden. Local newsrooms covered that campaign, some with the help of organizations like First Draft News, which trained local journalists in how to respond to election-related misinformation.
But the challenges didn’t stop there. Even after the election was called for President Joe Biden, erroneous claims continued and even increased.
“I think 2020 is a real eye opener for a lot of people about the role of misinformation, disinformation and conspiracy theories,” said John Silva, senior director of education and training at the News Literacy Project. Annually NLP produces National News Literacy Week, typically the last week of January, though it offers resources year-round to educators and citizens.
“We saw (disinformation) on so many different fronts,” Silva said. “We had QAnon, COVID — its origins, its causes, its spread — about the vaccines that are coming out, about so many other things related to the presidential election.”
It was, Silva said, a perfect storm of disinformation combined with no shortage of free time to consume it. And amplify it.
The problems arising from misinformation also reveal a flawed business model facing the news industry. Greater dependence on platforms like Facebook and Google to disseminate journalism has coincided with years of disruption to advertising. Together, these challenges to traditional business models sidelined thousands of journalists and even closed newsrooms altogether at the moment they were most needed to counter the dangerous narratives circulating in their communities.
Fewer news organizations to perform their watchdog and explanatory function is a obstacle to an informed citizenry. Competition and competency among journalists that adhere to a code of conduct strengthens our democracy.
Although platforms didn’t directly cause newsroom closers and cuts, they have been dismantling journalism’s financial foundations for years. Illinois communication professor Nikki Usher, a fellow with the Center for Journalism & Liberty, wrote:
“Despite record numbers of readers and viewers, American journalism faces a financial crisis. Journalism jobs have been contracting even faster than coal mining jobs. One-fifth of American newspapers have either closed or merged since 2004, with between 1,300 and 1,800 communities losing regular access to local news. As news organizations shrink and the power of big tech platforms reigns unchecked, the information environment becomes increasingly polluted by viral conspiracy theories, hate speech, foreign propaganda, ‘fake news,’ and other forms of highly polarizing misinformation.”
This is an environment that Eleanor Skelton knows well. She’s a TEGNA digital content producer at an NBC/ABC affiliate in Beaumont, Texas. Her TV newsroom typically staffs only a single person to both produce the 12NewsNow website content and monitor social media comments.
She said viewers often directly message the station, accusing it of spreading “fake news” and ignoring other topics, usually issues related to popular conspiracy theories.
“It can be really, really difficult to stop and engage with someone,” Skelton said. “It’s really hard to even respond to that volume (of messages).”
Skelton is unsure whether greater and more stable revenue would help the station’s efforts to correct misinformation and disinformation. Having enough money to employ another journalist would certainly help lighten the digital workload — and enhance efforts in validity . Frankly, though, she said she’s not sure viewers would listen.
There just isn’t enough audience trust to capitalize on to change all the minds that need changing.
Luckily an increasing corps of journalists strives to restore trust between journalists and their audiences. One leading effort is Trusting News, which, by collaborating with Hearken, a tool to give rise to voices and ideas from individuals, and the American Press Institute, implemented Election SOS. The project helped local newsrooms cover the presidential election.
Meanwhile, Silva and the News Literacy Project are increasing partnerships between newsrooms and educators.
One of the organization’s earliest successes with this kind of programming was between Chicago Sun Times and Chicago Public Schools. The paper hosted educators in its newsroom.
“That’s an opportunity for newsrooms and journalists to understand what their role can be,” Silva said, “to sort of pull back the curtain on the process of journalism.”
There is no silver bullet to confronting disinformation. In order to create audiences more resilient to it, we’ll need rigorous reporting, authentic audience engagement and, yes, competitive business models.
For its part, the CJL think tank pushes for platform accountability and competitive policy. Strongly funded news organizations that fairly compensate journalists trained in ethics and accuracy work daily to educate our democracy, during National News Literacy Week — and the other 51 weeks of the year.
