The News: What to Watch 2023

Things that Can No Longer Be Unseen

This new year isn’t fooling around. It’s dragging into the spotlight issues that have been festering deep inside the news ecosystem for years. For a long time, it was easy to ignore or overlook the problems. What we’re left with now is the train wreck we can’t unsee.

POINTED THIS WAY

National news continues to point toward diminished local news as “the” problem. It’s national’s explanation as to why they’ve gotten so good at being out of touch.

To make things worse, national has moved lots of resources to covering politics — which means they now spend big to simply make things worse. What things? Well, coverage of elections, red waves, George Santos, to name a few. No matter what it does, national appears committed to ensuring the most trusted news remains local.

POINTED THAT WAY

Local news took a beating for enabling Santos to rub elbows within NY3 for not one but two election cycles. But, if we look deeper, local didn’t miss it entirely. It just didn’t have the bandwidth it needed to magnify the story.

At play: The landscape is now so fragmented local news outlets aren’t paying attention to what colleagues at other outlets are reporting.

At play: Local news outlets’ lack of high-tech skills, which is what’s needed to succeed in today’s digitally driven world. Old community newspapers are still producing some quality work, but no one knows, because it can’t be found online.

At play: We’re now generations removed from growing up journalists who cut their teeth verifying facts. The current mindset of cobbling together information from a variety of published reports — no need to speak to a source, as that would slow down the process — and filing 400 words by deadline may be filling space, but it’s no longer passing for journalism.

At play: News consumers don’t know what news is covering their backyards. It’s not because they don’t care. It’s because for more than 20 years now, the news has been following them. Younger Gen Xers, Millennials, Zs and Alphas have no idea where local news is coming from, or even if it exists.

Local news outlets that have focused their attention on growing their audiences by distributing their news via social media platforms have succeeded in losing their audiences. (For those who stand by the strategy because it “works for The New York Times and the BBC,” just a gentle reminder: You’re not The New York Times or the BBC.) It’s high time to leave the ego at the door and reintroduce yourself to your neighbors.

POINTED BETWEEN

Regional news outlets are sandwiched between local and national. Because of that, they usually escape the brunt of criticism for the news ecosystem coming apart at its seams.

It’s been regional’s job throughout history to take a local story, broaden its scope and reinforce the idea that “this one’s important.” Regional also missed the Santos story and, that, too, left National with nothing to nosh on.

POINTED INWARD

What the Santos story so clearly illustrates is not simply the need for a strong news ecosystem. It illustrates, brilliantly and painfully, how community is failing news at the local level.

At play: Social media spending replaced advertising, which promised to deliver more for less. But has it worked as intended?

At play: Local organizations espousing “keep it local” philosophies yet sending their advertising and marketing dollars to Big Tech companies, none of which are local.

At play: The rule of self-fulfilling prophecy, which claims local news is dead, but stops short of examining how the lack of advertising is what’s killing it.

POINTED FORWARD

What is now barreling its way toward us in the media landscape is artificial intelligence. While it’s been developing for a long time, it’s now hitting the masses in dramatic fashion.

At play: What AI means for newsrooms is that a new challenge has emerged, one that requires a balancing act between human and machine to produce better quality news.

At play: What AI means for the news consumer, who will soon bear witness to what it’s like to experience fake news, not simply read or watch it.

#news #media #commentary #AI #2023