OPINION4 - Mainstream Media News - Believe it or Not

Once in a while, among numerous blog posts on history and science, I feel the need to get something off my chest.  This time the subject is how mainstream media news is declining before our eyes. 

 

In this opinion piece, I will start with a discussion of where Americans get their news today, and follow that with a definition of mainstream media news.  Then, I will cover what I feel are the troubling problems of mainstream media news; the special cases of newspapers, television, and online news; and how social media amplifies all the negative aspects of mainstream media news.  I’ll conclude with some thoughts about how to get “better” news.

My principal sources include my own aging, frustrated brain, “More than eight-in-ten Americans get news from digital devices,” supremecourt.gov; “Broad agreement in U.S. - even among partisans - on which news outlets are part of the mainstream media,” pewresearh.org; “What is Mainstream Media? Definition, Meaning, and Types,” letter.ly; “Current Problems in the Media,” dailysource.org; “What’s Wrong with the Media and How We Can Fix It,” bettermarketing.pub; “33 Problems with Media in One Chart,” visualcapitalist.com; “What’s Wrong with the Media,” fair.org; “Social media as a news source,” Wikipedia.com; and numerous other online sources.

Where do Americans get News Today?

The transition of news from print, television and radio to digital outlets has caused huge disruptions in the traditional news industry, especially the print news industry.  It is also reflected in the ways individual Americans say they are getting their news.  A large majority of Americans get news at least sometimes from digital devices, according to a Pew Research Center survey conducted August 31 - September 7, 2020.

  

More than eight-in-ten U.S. adults (86%) say they get news from a smartphone, computer, or tablet “often” or “sometimes,” including 60% who say they do so often.  This is higher than the portion who get news from television, though 68% get news from TV at least sometimes and 40% do so often.  Americans turn to radio and print publications for news far less frequently, with half saying they turn to radio at least sometimes (16% do so often) and about a third (32%) saying the same of print (10% get news from print publications often).

What is the Mainstream News Media?

Mainstream news media are mass media that reaches a large audience and influences society on a large scale.  Traditionally, this primarily includes broadcast television and radio networks, online TV networks, and large newspapers.  The term mainstream media is used to contrast with alternative media, like social media.  In an increasingly globalized and connected world, mainstream media news plays a significant role in shaping public opinion and influencing decisions.

However, the exponential growth of online social media platforms like Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and TikTok, has blurred the lines between mainstream and alternative media, pushing people to ponder questions - what is mainstream media, what are its different types, and which of these outlets are trustworthy.

In 2021, Pew Research Center asked a representative sample of U.S. adults whether they consider each of 13 different news outlets to be a part of the mainstream media or not.  The representative outlets were selected to include a range of audience sizes and sectors.

 

Americans broadly agree that national and online television news networks, and large newspapers, are part of mainstream news media.

Overall, a majority of Americans consider seven of these outlets to be part of the mainstream news media.  That includes the one national network news outlet included in the analysis (ABC News), all three major online news outlets asked about (MSNBC, Fox News and CNN), and three large legacy print publications: the New York Times, the Wall Street Journal and the New York Post.

Problems with Mainstream Media News

Independent, aggressive, and critical media are essential to an informed democracy.  But mainstream media are increasingly cozy with the economic and political powers they should be watchdogging.  With U.S. media outlets overwhelmingly owned by for-profit conglomerates, and supported by corporate advertisers, independent journalism is severely compromised.

People today are bombarded with mainstream media news sources.

 

Mainstream media news outlets are very highly motivated to attract people to view their product.  Unfortunately, they have resorted to some very questionable practices.  In this section, I’m going to discuss problems that are generally applicable to all types of mainstream media identified above.  In following sections, I will discuss specialized problems for newspapers, television news, and online news.

Jumping the Gun.  How many times has this happened?  The news outlet jumped the gun and reported the story before the sources had been properly vetted.  Then, they had to retract the story.

This kind of mistake illustrates the classic challenge of being first and being right.  Fact checking and verification are way down the pole with many news outlets.

The most egregious example of this in my experience is the January 8, 2011 shooting of U.S. Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords, when a man went on a shooting spree during a constituents meeting held by the congresswoman outside a Tucson-area supermarket.  Six people died in the attack and another 13, including Giffords, were wounded.

NPR first reported that Giffords had died, and soon after CNN, Fox News and The New York Times did the same.  But they then retracted the information, saying she wasn’t in fact dead. NPR, which heard the information from two sources - the local sheriff’s office and a congressman’s office - apologized for the mistake and called it an unintentional error of judgment.

Bias.  Most media sources have some level of political or social agenda.  Explicit bias occurs when the attitudes and beliefs of publishers overly dictate what stories are covered and how those stories are framed.  Certain news outlets will reliably only publish viewpoints from one side of the political spectrum.

Independent, aggressive and critical media are essential to an informed democracy.  But mainstream media are increasingly cozy with the economic and political powers they should be watchdogging.  Mergers in the news industry have accelerated, further limiting the spectrum of viewpoints that have access to mass media.  With U.S. media outlets overwhelmingly owned by for-profit conglomerates and supported by corporate advertisers, independent journalism is compromised.

Corporate ownership, advertiser influence, and political agendas promote bias in news reporting by following a telecom policy that tends to promote the formation of huge media conglomerates and discourage new, competing voices; the drive to maximize profits compelling corporate news outlets to produce more and more news with fewer and fewer reporters; with pressure groups standing ready to punish the exceptional reporter who challenges the official agenda; not providing a full range of debate;  and outright censorship.

In our society today, large corporations are a more common source of censorship than governments: media outlets killing stories because they undermine corporate interests, advertisers using their financial clout to squelch negative reports, and powerful businesses using the threat of expensive lawsuits to discourage legitimate investigations.  The most frequent form of censorship is self-censorship: journalists deciding not to pursue certain stories that they know will be unpopular with the boss.

Sensationalism.  The media plays up and dwells on stories that are sensational - enemy threats, murders, car crashes, kidnappings, sex scandals, and the like.  They use provocative framing and exaggeration to attract more attention to stories.  Every other day, the Supreme Leader of North Korea, Kim Jong-un, threatens the U.S. with nuclear attack - and every single one of his ridiculous tirades is covered religiously in the mainstream news.  Another repelling example is the never-ending story of Brian Laundrie who killed his fiancé Gabrielle Venora Pepito in August 2021 and himself a month later.

Infotainment.  Driven in part by competition, news is optimized to hook viewers in by prioritizing entertainment value over factual reporting.  It’s not enough simply to deliver the news; it needs to be more compelling than other options.  The result is tabloidization, enhanced focus on the lives of celebrities and more superficial coverage of current events.  Lurid or gossipy coverage of the personal lives of public figures takes resources and attention away from more meaningful reporting.  Who really needs to know about Kourtney Kardashian selling vaginal gummies?

Poor Coverage of Important Issues.  While the mainstream media is busy covering sensationalist or infotainment stories, issues that affect our lives and the whole world receive little attention.  For instance, according to recent studies, the American people want to know more about the environment, national affairs, foreign aid, and education.

Media outlets often publish press releases and other forms of prepackaged content instead of original reporting.  This helps outlets meet their content needs, but undermines trust as these messages are often optimized for public relations or promotional objectives.

Mainstream news practices “hit-and-run” coverage.  They publish a breaking story, and subsequently fail to follow up with the additional facts, nuanced analysis, or broader context.  Example:  The verdict in a celebrity trial is announced and the previous day’s story about a devastating earthquake in Yemen is promptly forgotten - even as the situation is still unfolding.

Particularly annoying, mainstream media news does not cover itself.  Very few media outlets have reporters who covers “the press” full time.  News outlets not likely to be scrutinized by peers, are safe in careless or abusive practices.

Mistakes.  Public confidence in the media, already low, continues to slip. A recent poll by USA TODAY/CNN/Gallup found only 36% of Americans believe news organizations get the facts straight, compared with 54 percent in mid-1989.

When reporters and editors were asked why they thought mistakes were being made, 34% said the "rush to deadline" was the major factor, one third said it was a combination of being "overworked" and "understaffed,” and the remaining third said it was "inattention, carelessness, inexperience, poor knowledge" and just-plain-bad editing and reporting.  Almost four in ten of those people interviewed feel sure many factual errors are never corrected because reporters and editors are eager to hide their mistakes.

Fake News.  Unfortunately, mainstream news media seems increasingly guilty of fake news, the practice of deliberately disseminating untrue or misleading information.   Fake news often has the aim of damaging the reputation of a person or entity, or making money through advertising revenue.  Political polarization is a key factor in the spread of fake news.  A prime example is liberal-leaning news outlets constantly harping that the Republicans are out to destroy Medicare and Social Security, and conservative-leaning news outlets repeatedly saying that Democrats want to do away with the Second Amendment.

Polarized politics is a key factor in fake news.

 

The Columbia Journalism Review and the nonprofit, nonpartisan research firm Public Agenda polled 125 senior journalists nationwide in 1999 on various questions.  When asked: "Have you ever seriously suspected a colleague of manufacturing a quote or an incident?" a disturbingly high 38% answered yes.

The prevalence of fake news has increased with the rise of social media, especially the Facebook News Feed, and this misinformation is gradually seeping into the mainstream media.  (See below)

Doom and Gloom.  The mainstream news takes a “doom and gloom” attitude toward a lot of the news.  Whether it’s prospects for peace in Ukraine, Iran’s march toward nuclear weapons, the never-ending COVID variants, the soon-to-come economic depression, imminent climate change disasters; the dangers of artificial intelligence technology - you name it and the news is unfailingly negative.  Even with the weather - the probable devastation and inconvenience of winter storms, hurricanes, droughts, fires, etc. - are trumpeted before these events actually happen.  There is very little positive or optimistic in the news - and that’s in large part because it doesn’t “sell.”

Misleading Headlines.  I really get mad at the headlines that mainstream media uses in its so-called news reports.  Headlines are used as “clickbait,” a framing method that uses exaggerated, emotional language and omitted information to entice readers to click through or watch.  The quintessential example is, “You won’t believe what happened next!”  Often the promise of the headline is not satisfied by the story because of empty or semi-trivial content; it’s sort of a “bait and switch” approach.

 

Non-specific headlines are used as “clickbait” to attract readers.

The headline buzzwords language that really frosts me is the derogatory: (entity or person) was ripped, or slammed, or pummeled, or hammered, or criticized, or savaged, or berated, or lambasted, or castigated, or reprimanded, or rebuked, or disparaged, or chastised, or torched, or slapped, or trashed, or roasted, or mocked, or distained, or scorned, or maligned, or condemned, or vilified … on and on.

Special Case:  Newspapers

Consolidation.  In 1945, four out of five American newspapers were independently owned and published by people with close ties to their communities.  Those days are gone.  Today less than 20% of the country's 1483 papers are independently owned; the rest belong to multi-newspaper chains which concentrate on reaping large profits and are not much given to public self-examination on ethics and quality issues.  22 companies now control 70% of the country's newspaper circulation.  As discussed above, meaningful news content of today’s newspapers is disappearing.

There are hundreds - if not thousands - of communities at risk of becoming isolated news deserts because they are no longer served by dedicated local news media.  Instead of receiving important local coverage in a person’s own town, they hear about what a man way across the country did today.  The residents of America’s emerging news deserts are often its most vulnerable citizens.  They are generally poorer, older, and less educated than the average American.

Today, major newspapers are consolidating and local newspapers are disappearing.

 

Subscription Price Gouging.  As a 20-year customer, I dropped my subscription to the Arizona Daily Star a few years ago after finding out that the company was renewing my subscription annually at a rate much higher than they were offering new customers.  When I called to complain, I was told that the new-subscriber people had nothing to do with the renew-subscription side of the house.  Ironically, from 2009-2014, I was an unpaid columnist for the newspaper.

Free Online App.  That same newspaper offers a free online app that permits non-subscribers like me to view part of the daily news.  Somehow, they manage to scramble the organization of the news articles so that the same story appears in several of their news categories.

Special Case:  Television News

Television news can be limited by time.  It can shortchange complex stories, or avoid them altogether.  It also relies too much on personalities “reading the news,” at the expense of intelligent discourse.  Have you ever wondered how much the news anchor actually knows about the story, or what influence he/she had on the preparation and/or editing of the news.

Special Case:  Online News

Clickbait.  See above comments in “Misleading Headlines.”

Expert Panels.  Many outlets rely way too much on expert panels, where obviously non-expert panelists aggressively and emotionally push their own opinions,

Paywalls.   Paywalls are a mechanism that prevents users from accessing specific content without a paid subscription.  While media sites understandably want to drive revenue, the result is a two-tiered media landscape.  Quality news for subscribers, and shallow, sensationalized content for everyone else.  This practice is extremely annoying.

Ad Clutter.  The usability of a news website is impacted by pop-up ads, auto-play videos, and intrusive banner ads.  The resulting experience can be disorienting, often frustrating, and is all too prevalent these days.

This cartoon illustrates an often-held misconception of online content.

 

Social Media

Whatever I may think about the problems with traditional mainstream media news, keep in mind that anyone can create and share content, and connect on social media.

A single social media post can result in the viral spread of unvetted information, and reach millions of people.  Misinformation (incorrect) and disinformation (deliberate) can easily result.

In the 2019 the Pew Research Center poll mentioned earlier, at least 50% of all respondents reported that the following were either a "very big problem" or a "moderately big problem" for getting news on social media:

·         One-sided news (83%)

·         Inaccurate news (81%)

·         Censorship of the news (69%)

·         Uncivil discussions about the news (69%)

·         Harassment of journalists (57%)

·         News organizations or personalities being banned (53%)

·         Violent or disturbing news images or videos (51%)

 

 

Depending on social media for news can be hazardous to your health.

Conclusion

So, …  I got a bunch of stuff off my chest.  Now what?

I’ll conclude with some thoughts (selected and adapted) from a 2019 article by KD Neith, “What’s Wrong with the Media and How We Can Fix It,” published in Better Marketing.

We pick our media sources in the same way we choose our political party, with a heavy leaning towards our own views.  Taken to extremes, this leads to confirmation bias and living in a bubble where we don’t allow ourselves to be exposed to viewpoints that we may not agree with, irrespective of their legitimacy.

Media is going to feed us what we want - they have to because their profits and continued existence relies upon it.  If we make it clear we’re more interested in superficial fluff like what B-grade celebrities ate for breakfast than, for instance, the social and environmental conditions that led to the Syrian crisis, we can’t complain when that’s what the media dish up to us.

Here are some easy steps that we all should consider if we’re serious about being an informed adult.

Work on the assumption that ALL news headlines are clickbait, and cannot be relied upon unless - at the very least - we read the full article.

Avoid articles that use highly emotive terms, whether they’re right-wing or left-wing - they are trying to manipulate us, and are not giving us the respect to form our own opinions.

Utilize different media sources on a regular basis.  Helpfully, the Media Bias/Fact Checker website evaluates hundreds of news websites and broadcast stations for bias.  (I found this website to be very enlightening, and have since, changed my news consumption habits.)