A recent Pew Research study found that 21% of American adults depend on social media influencers for their news. When considering adults ages 18 to 29, this percentage rises to 37%.
Pew conducted another study demonstrating that the audience size for traditional media — radio, print and television — is dropping, except for the biggest brands. The decline of newspaper distribution and audience levels suggests that these audiences are getting their information elsewhere. As many legacy media companies scramble to figure out where their readers are going, owners of social media companies like Reddit claim that they are becoming the new mainstream media. But that’s not necessarily true.
Influencers actually are the new mainstream media. The consequences of such a designation are stark, making the restoration of trust in mainstream media an important objective for the coming years.
When it comes to reporting the news, legacy media companies have an advantage due to their many reporters and resources. Yet it’s done nothing to tame their biases, which have bled into legacy media companies’ news reporting. The objectivity of the news expected from the legacy media continues to decline, so has the once clear distinction between the objective and subjective parts of media. As a result, the American public’s understanding of media literacy is sliding along with their trust in these legacy media companies.
As Jeff Bezos, Amazon founder and owner of The Washington Post, mentioned in his reasoning behind not endorsing a presidential candidate, there is clear evidence that trust in the legacy media in America is at an all-time low and still declining. Accusations of unfair coverage of politicians and current events have sparked distrust most recently, but the decline began long before the last 10 years. It can arguably be traced back to the Federal Communications Council repealing the Fairness Doctrine in 1987, a law that required broadcasters to devote time to contrasting viewpoints of public importance. The doctrine’s repeal led to the emergence of 24-hour news stations that established the framework for modern opinionated news reporting.
But the 24-hour news stations weren’t the only ones who bought into the slush that has become opinionated news reporting. The Michigan Daily’s Editorial Board noted that The New York Times published an opinionated headline in a news article about Trump’s reelection. When legacy media infuses opinion into something that is meant to be an objective reporting of facts, it’s no wonder why trust in those mediums is continuously decreasing.
Although I don’t agree with Bezos’ decision to block The Washington Post Editorial Board’s future endorsements of political candidates, I agree with his criticism of bias in the news that we depend on. It makes complete sense that people have abandoned legacy media for influencers not tied to the industry. It doesn’t seem to bother their viewers that many of these influencers don’t have any experience in professional journalism.
News that is personally catered to the viewer has now taken over. Why would someone choose a news organization that shows obvious biases while claiming to be objective over the podcaster who lets viewers know their opinion upfront? It’s partially why Reddit’s CEO made claims that the company is becoming mainstream media. People would rather depend on each other for news instead of a corporation, regardless of how true it is.
While legacy media retains the “mainstream media” moniker, it seems influencers have come to fit the description more accurately. Despite the absence of what many in the industry require for reporting, including fact-checking and a wide array of resources, influencers have earned the title because of the legacy media’s mistakes. For any of this to happen, from the distrust in the legacy media to the embracing of regular people online, one major thing needed to change: media literacy.
The position of influencers ranging from Joe Rogan to the Pod Save America crew position in the mainstream media is here to stay, regardless of what changes in the coming years. But these companies can still rectify the issues that stem from the dependence on biased reporting by trying to resurrect media literacy. This requires more than waxing poetic about the perils of a biased media — it requires legacy media to take action and go back to its roots.
While real change in the legacy media may seem a fool’s far-fetched hope, such change must begin with us. We are the next generation of reporters and columnists. The Daily and the University of Michigan have generated Pulitzer Prize winners and have alumni throughout the country’s major newspapers, from The Washington Post to The New York Times and The Wall Street Journal. Our influence, while small now, will become something substantial one day, and we must use it to promote a media readers can depend upon for objectivity. It is our future that shapes this nation — promoting ideals essential to our democracy will make it a future worth fighting for.
Thomas Muha is an Opinion Columnist and can be reached at tmuha@umich.edu. His column “Internet Insight” discusses the legal and economic issues facing the internet today.
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