A democratic society rests on three publicly funded pillars: our politicians, the research community, and the news media. For democracy to function, citizens must be able to trust them.
But what is the actual state of trust in the media today? According to the Novus Democracy Report, as many as 56 percent of all Swedes believe that the news media are pushing their own agenda.
That doesn’t necessarily mean people think journalists sit around making up lies. Rather, it’s about the news media having become stuck in a role where they’re perceived as a political actor in their own right. To some extent, they have indeed become one. But fundamentally, the issue is neither about the left nor the right. It’s about how social media has shattered the media’s traditional business model. In their quest to remain relevant and generate clicks, they’ve lost sight of their core mission.
There is, in fact, a big difference between how we get the news and what it actually contains.
In the past, the media controlled distribution. In today's digital landscape, distribution is free, which means the focus must shift back to content and quality.
The Purpose of the News: To Make Us Wiser
The goal when consuming the news should be to feel a little wiser afterward than you did before. Think about how often that actually happens when you turn off the TV or read an evening newspaper.
More often than not, we’re simply hit with yet another warning about a problem we had no idea existed—one that’s supposedly going to lead to a future catastrophe—without anyone being held accountable. This rarely leads to understanding—most of the time, it just leaves people confused and angry.
At the same time, most of us want to stay up to date and follow the news at least once a day. But what exactly are we hoping to get out of following the news?
When Novus surveyed Swedes about what they expect from the news, the answers were clear:
- Fact: 53%
- Knowledge: 16%
- Fastest to arrive: 11%
- Comprehension: 7%
In other words, only one in ten Swedes considers getting the news as quickly as possible to be a priority.
The Speed Trap: When “Fast Becomes Wrong”
So why has the media gotten it into its head that speed is the solution to everything? It’s probably because speed is easy to measure, and whoever publishes first rakes in the ad revenue.
But the downside is obvious: when speed becomes the primary goal, mistakes become built into the process. And when all media outlets are competing to be the first to break exactly the same story, they all make the same mistakes at the same time.
When half of all Swedes expect facts and feel that the news is “fast and wrong” time and time again, it eventually stops looking like unintentional mistakes. To the public, it appears to be a deliberate strategy. Anyone can make mistakes, but mistakes must not be an inherent consequence of the business model.
Opinions Replace Analysis
The second major threat to quality news reporting is the prevailing obsession with opinion. Live debates featuring pundits and commentators—staged almost as if the news were a sports broadcast—do very little to help viewers understand what is actually happening. On the contrary, they leave viewers feeling confused and frustrated once again.
The role of the news is neither to entertain us nor to broadcast opinions. There’s already an abundance of opinions and entertainment in our feeds.
A Way Forward for the Silent Majority
The reason so many people today feel misled by the news is simply that the media isn’t delivering what we expect. We turn to the media for facts, insight, and for journalists to hold those in power accountable on our behalf.
The problem doesn’t lie with the public. The problem is that media companies have lost sight of their core mission. The silent majority—those who aren’t the loudest on social media—just want a reliable source of facts. If the news media return to making that their main focus, many other things will automatically improve.
As part of this effort, I will be releasing reports through Globeknot that serve as a reliable and empirical source of information on what the silent majority actually thinks and feels about major social issues.
Torbjörn Sjöström
Founder of Globeknot