From Digital First to Trust First
At Reputation Squad we believe in the power of stories and in the need to bring value to the table. Yesterday, on Monday February 6th, we attended the latest News Impact Summit in Paris. Various journalists and experts presented their views on the challenges faced by media in regard to election coverage.
Trust in the media from readers has been declining for the last years. In France, according to the annual poll on the Trust in Media by La Croix, 80% of the French believe they are exposed to fake news, only 24% think journalists can resist pressure from Politicians and only 41% trust the information on TV. In times of upcoming elections in Europe and in regard to the shifting political scene, it seems to be the time to earn the trust back. To quote Adam Thomas, the new Director of the European Journalism Centre: after “digital first”, “mobile first”, “social first”, and “data first” it is finally time to go “trust first”. But how can one regain the lost trust?
Four strong trends emerged from the discussions:
- Keep on doing the job: information first
- Go local as much as possible and tell stories
- Bring diversity into the newsroom
- Embrace innovation
How the media have forgotten their true role
While looking through the recent coverage of elections, criticism was raised on how the media had forgotten its true role. During the first panel of the day, focusing on the US Elections, experts such as Mathew Ingram, senior writer at Fortune, tried to find explanations to what went wrong: “Journalists started covering elections like a horse race, asking “who is winning?” “who is ahead?” “. Somewhere along the way elections became a game, it seems as if journalists claimed that “[they] don’t care about the impact but only about who won the debate.”
“Media today doesn’t reflect the people”
Another mentioned reason for distrust was the disconnect from the “real people”. Ryan Heath, senior EU correspondent at POLITICO Europe, talked about the “bubble” journalism can turn into: “Media today doesn’t reflect the people”, he said. The same concern was shared by Cécilia Gabizon, Editor-in-chief of StreetPress. According to her, there is too much conformism in today’s newrooms. The same people, from the same schools, from the same cultural background cover the same subjects. A big amount of issues are not covered.
Journalism is more than facts and figures
And the topics are sometimes only covered with facts, which can also be a problem. For Yoni Appelbaum, Senior Editor for politics at The Atlantic: “Telling stories and engaging the audience might be more effective than just facts and figures.” He wants to invite the reader to participate in the narrative construction. Matthew Ingram (Fortune), talking about the election coverage in the US, said many people didn’t feel heard: “Journalists had the perception of “doing the job” for months, fact-checking, chasing the truth, but none of that mattered.”
Fact-checking is not enough anymore
Against the large ecosystem of fake news, “fact-checking is not enough anymore” said Alice Antheaume, Executive Director of the Sciences Po Journalism School. Samuel Laurent, head of the fact-checking section at French national media Le Monde, explained “answering to people on Twitter for 7 years cost [his] mental health”. Does this mean journalists need to stop checking facts and chase the truth? For Cécile Dehesdin, Editor-in-chief of BuzzFeed France, the answer is a clear “no”: “We need to be aggressive — we have to go relentlessly after the truth”.
“We need to get out, start to talk to real people”
While the vast majority of American get their information online, according to Amy Mitchell, director of journalism research at Pew Research Center, Mark Little, journalist and entrepreneur says we really are at a turning point for journalism. “Human beings have been suffering from cognitive overload”, he said, explaining that “we live in a universe of alternative facts”.
As various panelists said, it is time to reconnect with the readers. How? John Crowley, Editor-in-chief of the International Business Times UK put it in simple words during the day: “we need to get out, start to talk to real people”. He shared this point of view with Cécilia Gabizon (StreetPress), who wants to hire journalists from everywhere to cover all places with as much points of view as possible. For Thomas Seymat from Euronews, an easy way to get closer to people and to tell the stories locally is through VR and 360°. “Innovation serves empathy and proximity”, he said.
