The future of news media is in our hands | Rickey Bevington | TEDxPeachtree

hi so in 2005 I was working at my dream job I was a local TV news producer at a Media Markt station in New England and I had worked so hard for this job and I loved it so much that I was willing to wake up at 2 o'clock in the morning every day to go to work I would interview local politicians community leaders business owners about important issues like what do you think of property taxes how is the new highway gonna impact your business so one day my boss comes to me and says Ricky go get this story heated car seats can be dangerous I am very sure she wanted me to come back with a story that looked like this there is a philosophy in news if it bleeds it leads we wanted to grab eyeballs because the more eyeballs we have the more expensive advertising we can sell I spent the next couple of days calling ambulance chaser attorneys asking about exploding car seats all of them told me that I was reaching a little too hard for a story that wasn't there and still my boss wanted to grab attention and wallets she wasn't particularly concerned with giving people news that could help them I believe the news should help us I also believe that the news used to do a lot better job of giving us information that helped us rather than just trying to make money and I believe that this is a big reason why we no longer trust the news media they don't seem to really want to help us they want to hold our attention to sell ads the good news is that I think that we can fix this in a broader sense I think that we can fix the news and restore the implied contract that it has with the public a contract is just an agreement between parties in this case the public and the news media today I no longer do stories about exploding car seats I do pledge breaks I work for in Atlanta and PR affiliate as an on-air broadcaster and I hope that when I turn on the microphone every afternoon people trust me because they know that I'm trying to give them stories that add to their lives Trust is a contract it's an unspoken agreement that a person or an organization will respect your best interests we had an unspoken agreement with the news media it is pretty clear that that contract of trust is broken look at these numbers less than a quarter of Americans say that they trust the news apply that to this room everybody from this aisle over would think that the news media was full of it now not trusting the news media may not seem like a big deal in your day-to-day life but think about all of the decisions that you make every day based on information that you consider trustworthy you pick out clothes to wear in the morning based on the weather report that is trust you decide to buy a food item at the grocery store based on the information on the package that is trust when it comes to the news media that contract of trust helps us decide how we're going to vote how we want our tax dollars spent whether or not our family members and friends in the military and the thousands of other Americans should go to war so when we make any decision based on outside information we need to be able to trust it we saw an example of this with hurricanes Harvey and Maria and Irma in the days leading up to the storms millions of people needed accurate information that they considered trust so that they could prepare to keep themselves and their loved ones safe and still false news was circulating one email claimed that rainfall and flooding amounts were wrong another widely shared Facebook post claimed that the news media was downplaying the size of the storms with lies at stake with our finances at stake arguably with our democracy at stake why do so few people trust the news I believe it's because this balance has subtly shifted the news media doesn't seem to really want to help us they seem more interested in keeping our attention to sell ads the economics of this mean that the news media can't really rely any more on advertisements and revenue and subscriptions many outlets are now largely paid with your attention it's actually called the attention economy we all know what this looks like we have all heard of clickbait we've all clicked on clickbait these 20 animals net worth will make you gasp for breath it's ridiculous and it works you click on this and the sponsor makes money I clicked on it mainstream TV news is not immune from this type of luring of eyeballs in August 2014 during a news broadcast the anchors at Fox 5 WNYW New York were cheering as the meteorologist comes out and proceeds to take off his shirt and flex his well tone muscles I clicked on that video but simply giving you information so that you can understand the world better no longer keeps the news media and business we can fix this we can restore our contract of trust of the news it's as simple as supply and demand we can demand that the news media help us so how can we do this I have five ideas for you today number one distinguish between news and journalism seek out information sources that take more time to explain things to you because when it comes to understanding the world shorter is not sweeter in 2012 80% of local TV news stories were less than a minute how can you understand anything in 55 seconds journalism takes time to explain the whole story with multiple perspectives news is just new information when we demand more informative stories we encourage the news media to supply us with longer deeper storytelling number two up for fact over opinion Talking Heads now dominate home pages and newscasts as of five years ago commentary and opinion had crept up to 63% of national cable news opinion aiders understand the issues well enough for them to tell you what they think how can you honestly know what you think without the facts the context the reporting when we demand information over opinion we push the news media to supply us with journalism over Talking Heads number three yes get out of your echo chamber be aware of what people you disagree with they're saying and be genuinely curious why on social media go ahead and follow thought leaders politicians activists with whom you disagree and click on their posts when we demand to understand opposing viewpoints we motivate the news media to supply us with balanced objective reporting number four go global consider frequenting international news sources you will very quickly see that people elsewhere in the world see thinks so differently than we do here at home now ideas from far away may seem irrelevant but they give you a very good idea of where we stand in a global conversation when we demand international perspectives we embolden the news media to supply us with a broader scope of ideas and perspectives and number five and certainly the simplest yep go out and buy one of these when was the last time any of us paid for our news most of us don't but if we want the news media to supply us with information that helps us we have got to free them from having to hold our attention with scandal and sensationalism and downright silly stories we have got to break the news out of the attention economy nine out of ten adults say that they get their news online subscribe to an online journalism website donate to a non-profit television station or go out and buy a newspaper and here's a great way to pay it forward consider giving subscriptions to family and friends for holiday and birthday presents or donate to your child's school this is our modern day example of the power of the purse when we pay for our news we are demanding that the news media supply us with journalism over clickbait analysis over Papa paths now the news media's got to do their part too and that means addressing the elephant in the room and the donkey which is that the news media is politically and socially polarizing right now I was recently giving a speech about the state of a news media to a group of Roman Catholic priests in Charleston South Carolina I was wrapping up my remarks and taking questions and a fan in the back raised his hand and he said I was just wondering how many conservatives work in your newsroom I told him I don't know the political leanings of my colleagues but I understood his point he is among millions of Americans and many of you may be among them who don't feel that they're seeing conservative viewpoints adequately represented in the news media the people who work in the news media meant for all Americans need to reflect all Americans news executives talk all day long about adding diversity among staff and contributors in terms of things like race and gender and sexual identity all of that is incredibly vital how well our newsroom is doing prioritizing diversity of political thought when you see your political ideas reflected in the news media you are more likely to trust the news media so it's so easy to be angry even really frustrated there's other words for it about the news media right now this isn't the worst that's ever been who here has heard of Orson Welles in the War of the Worlds the worst that has ever been made possibly have been October 30th 1938 aliens landed on Grover's mill New Jersey and dispatch to take over the world mass hysteria ensued people thronged police stations demanding to be evacuated those who couldn't handle the shock dropped out of a heart attack others tried suicide at least that's what the post and The Times and other newspapers reported the truth is that the great American storyteller Orson Welles had simply aired a very frightening radio drama after all it was almost Halloween some people expressed concern sure but most understood the disclaimers during War of the Worlds that it was fictional entertainment and still the newspapers kept churning out these stories very likely in an effort to discredit their new rival in the news business the very new technology of radio we also live in an era of unprecedented technological upheaval that's transforming the ways in which we communicate of course we're confused about who to trust what has not changed is the power of the free market consumers have incredible influence over the news media supply always follows demand we are the demand and just like those listeners in 1938 who knew that War of the Worlds was just a good bit of Halloween fun we are so much smarter than the news media gives us credit for let's harness the tried and true forces of the free market to demand that the news media stop reducing the very serious and very complex issues of our day to mindless clickbait shallow headlines in partisan sensationalism we deserve news that helps us make better sense of the world around us let's restore our contract of trust in the news media by helping the news media help us let's restore our trust in the news thank you [Music] you

Channel: TEDx Talks

Views: 64,621

Rating: 4.8483033 out of 5

Keywords: TEDxTalks, English, Humanities, Debate, Decision making, Democracy, Freedom, Journalism, Media, Truth

Id: bVMna_zSGio

Length: 15min 37sec (937 seconds)

Published: Tue Nov 14 2017

Reddit Comments

[u/Facepalms4Everyone]

Pretty self-defeating to tell readers to get out of their echo chamber and then say the news media needs to do a better job "prioritizing diversity of political thought" because "when you see your political ideas reflected in the news media, you are more likely to trust the news media." Yeah, that's literally what an echo chamber is.

If you're looking to build readers' trust, your political opinions are meaningless and irrelevant, because the only way to build both sides' trust equally is to cater to neither.