Redefining 'mainstream media'

To me, nothing is more annoying than reading a post on social media which says either; "I bet the mainstream media won't report this," "Where are the mainstream media?" or "Why are the mainstream media so biased?" These posts are commonly in relation to events such as protests, or they're of graphics that states some figures that supposedly go 'against the narrative set out by the mainstream media', whatever that means.

Before I want to quash these comments, let's explore the definition of 'mainstream media' , which "refers to conventional newspapers, television and other news sources that most people know about and regard as reliable." I'm not sure how old this definition is, but it certainly doesn't reflect on public mood, as trust in them is at an all-time low in the United States while here in the UK, just 36% 'trust most news most of the time ' (June 2021). While that figure is up from January 2020, it's 14 percent lower than in 2016.

The definition is certainly outdated too. Before, it was easy to identify which media titles were 'mainstream'; we had just a small number of news channels and newspapers. We don't appreciate how wide the 'mainstream' list is now. We can't say the BBC is 'mainstream', because what part of it is? For example, today, the Corporation's news coverage alone can be found on its dedicated 24-hour news channel, Parliament for political discussion, about five hours of daily news content on BBC One (excluding Daily Politics and Question Time), Newsround on CBBC, local TV and radio networks, BBC Radio 2 has the Jeremy Vine show, BBC Radio 4 has the Today, Woman's Hour and PM programmes, BBC World Service, BBC Radio 5 Live - and lots more - all covering a range of stories, covering all corners. More likely than not, when people say the 'mainstream media' aren't covering what they find important, the chances are, they are being reported, but just not at the channel they're watching.

The point is, 'mainstream' isn't as clear cut as what it used to be. The choice for news content is endless and while BBC, Sky or The Times for instance have long-standing reputations for delivering trustworthy news, they cannot claim to be 'mainstream' as they once were. There are now dozens of 24-hour news outlets accessed by millions in the UK alone. Yes, BBC One will continue to be number one but according to Ofcom's 2021 figures , Facebook is the third highest 'news source' and also on the list (Figure 3.1) are Twitter, WhatsApp and Instagram. Figure 7.11 shows that The LADbible has more followers than The Daily Mail (which remains the UK's best-selling newspaper), CNN, The Guardian and Channel 4. Buzzfeed also has a large following and, like The LADbible, are considered a news organisation - or at least a platform where online users can consume news.

The problem we have today is the expectation of angle - we seem to want to know what each reporter stands for. BBC's Laura Kuenssberg is a fine example, as too is Robert Peston of ITV. The role of any news title is to present the facts from official and reliable sources, not to speculate or articulate an opinion from one side without presenting the other hand. The challenge is time (if a broadcaster) or pages (if a newspaper or magazine) - producers, journalists and editors of News at 6 on BBC One have 30 minutes to present the national and international news; on a good day (where there are no obvious breaking news), about eight news stories can be covered. That number can be reduced significantly during a general election or a global pandemic.

Elsewhere, newspapers have an increasingly challenging job to report as many stories as possible while balancing the increased demand of advertising revenue so titles are kept afloat; that, and those journalists are overwhelmed with news sources coming in from countless tweets and press releases.

We cannot afford to give the 'mainstream media' a hard time, largely because we don't know what counts as so in today's terms, and also, they play such a vital role in giving us the news that actually matters. They have editors making decisions every five seconds and are much more qualified to make than those who have a small handful of followers on Twitter.