News Media: An Ever Changing Tide
Where and how we get our news is in constant flux
If you take a moment to think about it, the way news is produced, distributed, and consumed has changed so much. It has been on somewhat of a roller coaster ride since the rise of the Internet.
As search engines indexed the web, the ease of accessing the latest news with just a few clicks reached a degree to which traditional forms of news media, like newspapers and your local TV station, were forever disrupted.
Then, with the advent of social media and a proliferation of content publication platforms, the ability to create and disseminate news was democratized, with “the power returning to the people.”
I grew up during a time when our household religiously read the newspapers every day, and we sat idly by during the evening news on TV. It was routine, always the same publications and TV stations.
It seemed normal then to rely on fewer sources to stay informed, and my memory from these times is that we relied on them quite heavily as a source of truth on what was happening in the world around us.
These days, things have changed dramatically.
Well, at least for me.
I have a routine of cycling through a number of major news websites in the morning (and again in the evening) to get a general idea of what’s going on in the world.
As the day progresses, I’ll hone in on more industry-specific sources across business, finance, and tech, mainly from online publishers via an RSS reader, and what online personalities in these spaces are talking about on YouTube and Twitter.
The list of sources that I cycle through is something that has built up over time. There are some that have stayed on it for years, but many others have dropped off to be replaced by something else. It never ends.
There’s only so much you can keep up with in a day, and I seemingly find myself constantly curating this list in the hopes of maintaining a more balanced view while keeping tabs on things that interest me personally.
I do try to consume news from different geopolitical landscapes, not just to stay informed about what’s going on in those markets but also to see how they differ in their reporting on topical matters of the day.
From time to time, I’ll check in on publishers that are known to lean a particular way and spin issues, serving content to specific audiences. I do this with online personalities on Twitter and YouTube as well.
Oftentimes, I find myself getting worked up, but it serves as a reminder that the world is increasingly polarized and not enough is being done to try and bridge that gap.
While I may not agree with a stance or opinion on a heated topic, particularly if it’s being sensationalized, I do hope that by doing this I can get some insight into why it has attracted so much attention and support.
And in the event that I ever have a conversation with someone who has a polarizing view, I’d like to think that I’d be better positioned to try and see if there’s any room for them to consider things from another perspective.
After all, and as naive as it may be, how can we ever hope to reconcile our differences if we’re not taking the time to understand one another?
But I digress; I’m by no means an expert on dealing with polarizing views, and all we can do is try our best, but the point is that where and how I choose to be informed has changed so much over time with no end in sight.
It’s never been more important to stay vigilant in terms of whom we decide to believe and what we decide to act on.
On that note, it is always interesting to look at some data and discern what kinds of trends and shifts may be taking place. This time around, and predictably, with graphs from Chartr, we take a look at the startling change to the landscape of news media.
Increasing distrust with conventional news media
The first graph below shows a steady and worrying increase in the distrust of TV news and newspapers over the last two decades. In 2022, nearly half of Americans had next to no confidence in the news they received from traditional sources.
While the exact reasons for this still appear to be up in the air, there is a belief that the rise of social media has played a role in increasing polarization, particularly across political topics. That is, if news is reported that goes against the beliefs of a particular group, it is often chalked up to sensationalism or even conspiracy, adding to the deepening divide.
It’s no secret that many publishers have historically been known to lean one way or another politically and therefore spin the news (perhaps more often than we’d like to see). However, the digital age has exacerbated this due to the low barriers to sharing information. And as a result, misinformation can spread like wildfire, which, in turn, has led to increased cynicism within the population.
It may also be worth noting that, as the Internet disrupted the business model of traditional news media, news content now skews more than ever towards “clickbait” in terms of favoring headlines and topics that are more likely to get the attention of readers over reporting the news factually and accurately.
With consumer attention spread thin, the much sought-after “article view” and an increased focus on the bottom line to stay in business have unfortunately led to an erosion in reporting quality and given way to increased sensationalism.
Obviously, this isn’t the case for all publishers, but it has certainly been a trend that has affected the industry overall. It also doesn’t help that, as consumers, we have encouraged this behavior by gravitating toward this kind of content.
The way we consume the news is changing
Where and how we’re consuming the news is changing as well. The shift from newspapers and TV to online news is now seeing some of that transfer to social media, specifically video-sharing platforms, amongst younger generations.
The graph below shows a range of popular platforms where news can be found and the percentage share of responses by the generation that uses them.
Overall, Google continues to be the main way people get their news, but you’ll notice where Gen Z (orange), the youngest generation in the graph with people generally born in the mid-late 1990s and early 2010s, clearly diverges from the pack.
While the majority of Gen Z continues to use Google, there is a clear gap with older generations. They also rely on news websites the least and, remarkably, use TikTok far more than any other generation before them.
In some ways, this kind of makes sense. TikTok came into the limelight as many Gen Z’ers were reaching high school and college age, a formative time where people find themselves and set habits and trends that can last for the rest of their lives.
The same could be said for Facebook, which resonated with Millennials back when it launched in the early 2000s. As much as it pains me to admit it, Facebook was all the rage back in my college days. You can still see its impact today in the graph below.
Now, this is anecdotal and just my own opinion, but it’s quite interesting to look into the survey and report that populated this graph. It builds the case that news publishers need to wake up and be more active on platforms like TikTok.
While this may ultimately be true, I have also noticed that as big as these publishers have become on other platforms, like Twitter and YouTube, consumer engagement with their content is surprisingly low, relatively speaking.
I do wonder if their efforts on TikTok would likely fare the same.
You may need to be on the “platform of the day” to remain visible and relevant from a branding perspective, but that doesn’t mean it’s going to materially impact your business for the better. If anything, it’s another channel to push out the news and adds another layer of complexity to operations.
Unfortunately for major publishers, it’s not just about being on a platform that everyone else is on but also about how you produce and distribute that content.
When it comes to news on YouTube or Twitter, I tend to be more engaged with publishers and personalities born on these platforms that have built a name for themselves within a particular niche (e.g., Tech YouTubers or the #FinTwit community).
And as a millennial, yes, I do follow many of the big news sites on social media, but to be honest, I rarely engage with them on those platforms. As such, the algorithmic gods have decided that their posts only show up on my feed occasionally, lowering their view counts substantially relative to their channel size.
Ironically, when I want to know about what they have to say, I still end up going to their websites or searching for them on Google. And this appears to be in decline.
Final thoughts
Do I think conventional news media are going away? No, I don’t think so.
I do believe that there’ll always be a place for mainstream media in reporting the news to the masses. At the end of the day, it is still these channels that we rely on whenever more serious and essential matters are being reported on, say, during a conflict or a natural disaster.
Now, I wish I could stop the avalanche of paywalls that are popping up everywhere across news sites. This seems counterintuitive based on the trends we’re seeing with how news is consumed.
But it does make sense that publishers are looking at every possible avenue to monetize and stay afloat. The landscape is set to change further as we continue to see how increased data privacy is impacting online advertising and, more recently, how AI may disrupt online search. All of this would only further impact their business models.
On a closing note, there’s also a lot behind the scenes in mainstream media that we don’t see that helps society function and move forward.
The democratization of reporting the news has given me hope as it has empowered professionals within the industry with more ways to stand on their own and speak up. This has been amazing to see.
But as a side effect, this also means that there’s more noise and distractions than ever before. So be careful out there.
See you in the next one!
If you missed last week’s article, feel free to read it below:
great take, thank you!