Building News Relevance

The public’s perceived relevance of journalists and the role they play in providing fact-based accounting of events and issues is an essential ingredient in building policy that protects a strong, diverse and independent press, a crucial principle of democracy. Yet, achieving relevance seems harder than ever.

The internet provides new opportunities for producing news, telling stories and reaching and connecting with audiences. It also poses new challenges – including entirely new structures and formats of news as well as a wider range of content and creators competing for the public’s attention, trust and value. The public’s ability to share information and opinions through social media also holds journalists accountable in ways they weren’t in the age of traditional media.

In a digital environment where publishers no longer serve as the sole gatekeepers of news and information, they must find new ways to stand out by developing relationships with audiences that reflect their lifestyles and habits. This means rethinking the very concept of news: how people define it, what news they’re looking for and where they access it. The “unbundling” of news and its financial structure are only the beginning of what has changed.

Younger generations require particular attention. In addition to being digital natives, many also have grown up in the social media age, when news is just one of many kinds of content mixed into online spaces which include messaging apps, private groups, video games and social feeds. Information sources are global. With so many choices, access to verified and independent reporting can be difficult. With habits already different from other age groups, how will their relationships with news evolve as they move further into adulthood? More broadly, how do they differentiate news from other kinds of content? What do they look for versus happen upon? How do they recognize brands, if at all? Who do they trust, and why?

Members of historically marginalized and underserved communities also require attention. They often have well-earned skepticism of news media broadly, having been historically underrepresented in newsrooms and misrepresented in (and actively harmed by) news coverage. They face unequal targeting from disinformation campaigns and often have less access to news and information. Inequities in representation, coverage and access impact people with disabilities through insufficient accessible and inclusive news, particularly for visually impaired news audiences and/or people with cognitive disabilities.

Many newsrooms have taken significant steps to connect with and serve marginalized and underserved communities, but there is still much ground to cover. One of the positives of the digital realm is the low cost to publishing, which has enabled the creation of niche news publishers. That said, building audiences can be incredibly challenging because it involves creating content specific populations connect to and value.

For journalism to be relevant today, publishers must listen to audiences and evaluate what they want and need so they can both meet their audiences’ wants and needs and offer accountable, fact-based work. As important as independent, competitive journalism and an open internet are to the future of functioning societies, neither can be ensured if the press, at large, does not gain the recognition, relevance and trust of audiences in the communities it strives to serve. Publishers and journalists need to think hard about what news means in the future and how people find it, value it and understand who produces it. Neither further regulation nor revenue alone can solve this part of the equation.

One challenge publishers face is gathering research and analysis that differentiates between their audiences’ expressed desires for news and actual media practices. This research and analysis is complex, expensive and falls largely on the news industry and research communities.

Legislation might not be explicitly designed to address the challenges of news relevance, but it nonetheless serves as a motivating factor behind a range of policies at the intersection of journalism and technology. This includes legislative debates addressed across several of CNTI’s issue primers:

• Our issue primer addressing economic support for news outlines policies intended to support commercial, public and local media through various funding mechanisms, which may offer ways for journalists and publishers to focus on important connections with the public. However, it is often unclear whether these responses address, or even consider, what the public desires or how they connect with news today, which are central for the news media to remain relevant with audiences.
• In our issue primer on artificial intelligence (AI) in journalism, we consider how automation offers opportunities for news productivity and innovation at the same time that it risks enabling disinformation, obscuring source attribution and undermining public trust in news. These questions of trust will continue to be influenced by how publishers, technology companies and policymakers handle AI transparency and accountability.
• In our issue primer on addressing disinformation, we detail global concerns about the rise of false and misleading information online as well as the type of content the public tends to perceive as mis- and disinformation. These perceptions have critical insights into which sources audiences trust and consider relevant.