The Disconnect Between the Public and the News

With affordability now an issue settling into Americans’ homes just in time for the holidays — remember, the strength of the stock market is perception, not reality; reality arrives in the form of food and gas prices — the public continues to hear that they must support journalism because “truth matters.” But how much does truth matter when people can no longer afford it?

Journalism basically lost its future when it decided to adopt social media techniques and proclaim them to be “new journalism,” despite the fact that those techniques have nothing to do with the hallmarks of quality news: facts, experts, reasoned assessments, packaged with perspective. Social media is the polar opposite: opinion, usually baseless but buoyed by outrage and jealousy — all the moods, none of the facts. The distinction is clearer now than ever before.

The news industry is running out of time to understand that this concept of new journalism is not prolonging its life but rather writing its obit. And it only hurts itself when it continues to label former journalists as journalists when those very people are peddling the worst of what social media can offer. Call them anything but journalists, because they are anything but.

 

The problem with new journalism

Ironically, part of this new journalism brand comes wrapped around the message that “truth matters.” And now that message comes to us from every corner of the media landscape: legacy papers, nonprofit newsrooms, digital startups, newsletters launched by laid-off reporters who are certain they can do it better than their incompetent former employers, podcasts, talk shows, and an ever-growing collection of Substacks multiplying like bunnies. Each promises its own version of truth. Each insists it is essential. And nearly all are competing for money from the same shrinking circle of people still willing and able to pay for news. According to the Reuters Institute, that circle is about 20 percent of the American public.

From the people’s vantage point, the current media landscape is less about truth and more about a train wreck.

Let’s talk disconnect. We already know trust in news sits at an all-time low in America — under 30 percent. We know information overload is common, and news avoidance is increasingly viewed as a lifestyle choice. The new black, if you will.

And what about all those headlines about news deserts sprouting across the country? They resonate less with the public and more with journalists inside the industry. Why? Because what Americans see and feel is not the absence of news but the opposite: more places asking people to part with their cash for the sake of democracy.

 

Truth and consequences

What is true is that news startups — primarily digital-only — are now popping up at a faster clip across the country. (And to be clear: digital-only news is different in character than legacy news, but that’s a topic for another day.) According to the Institute for Nonprofit News, more than 460 nonprofit newsrooms now operate nationwide, almost twice as many as five years ago. This at a time when funding has been cut from public broadcasting, which is doubling down on its efforts to ask the public for support. Substack hosts thousands of newsletters, asking for payment. Legacy outlets now offer subscription models not only for access to their news but also for their newsletters and access to databases. How much can any household sustain? And more importantly, how long until the news industry realizes it’s cannibalizing its own chances of success?

And here’s the other truth news outlets — from the biggest to the localist of locals — refuse to even contemplate: residents typically can’t name their news sources, especially local ones. This is the disconnect no one inside newsrooms wants to acknowledge, but it’s time to face it.

 

Vision is blocked inside the gap

To the industry, the crisis has centered around money: too few subscribers and too little philanthropic support. But to the public, the issue is simpler: what’s being produced no longer feels relevant to their lives. Truth, as presented by the news, often looks like something crafted to meet the needs of the outlet — to drive clicks, to justify funding, to satisfy donor expectations built around solutions journalism that seldom offers solutions at all. Now that solutions journalism funding is starting to be redirected to statehouse reporting, watch for media branding campaigns informing the public they can no longer live meaningful lives without reporting from the state legislature.

Truth, as lived by the public, focuses on the practical. It is the information that helps people understand their world, solve problems, and make decisions. It’s all about those food and gas prices.

This gap — between the truth the industry sells and the truth the public needs — is where journalism finds itself today.

Until news organizations confront this reality, the gap will widen. More outlets will emerge, more will ask for support. The news industry thinks it has a funding problem. But the public? They know news has a relevance problem.