Time is money in our attention economy
As legacy and alternative media outlets battle it out for prevalence in users’ minds, three panellists discuss how social media is affecting our attention spans in our pursuit of the truth.
by Maddie Dinnage
A preference for short, snappy digital news content means that more people rely on social media for news consumption. But in an online world where misinformation runs rife, how can established publications stay relevant while reinstating trust in the news industry?
MA Journalism student Maya Baylis kicks off the discussion with a look at shifting trends in news consumption and Gen-Z’s hesitancy towards legacy media organisations. “There’s been a shift in what elicits trust among young people,” she explained, “whether you think the shift to social media is good is another argument, but it is happening.”
She conceptualised the current news industry in the form of a marketplace analogy, where established publications like the BBC are the supermarkets, while independent news sources on social media are the street vendors. “They’re not asking for your money; they want you to pay attention.”
Just like their preference for farm-to-table produce from a local vendor, more young people are opting to consume information from sources they feel they can trust, Baylis explained. “We are willing to risk the dirt on the carrot to have that degree of perceived transparency.”
The New York Times photo editor, Sarah Eckinger, followed up by discussing the publication’s developing use of audiovisual content, designed to be seen on smartphones. “We are very aware that people are looking at news on their phones,” she said, “we have been asking our photojournalists to think more vertically.”
But it is not just about meeting people where they are, Eckinger explained. The mobile phone essay video format is an opportunity to break the fourth wall, with the journalist guiding the audience through what they are seeing on the ground. “The photographers are real humans behind the lens. Maybe for a while, there was an idea that people just knew that, but that’s not necessarily the case.”
Dr Felipe Bonow Soares rounded up with an in-depth look at the role of fact-checking software in tackling mistrust toward news outlets. “By going beyond this dichotomy of true and false, we can recognise there is collective action when it comes to misinformation.”
The problem is more complex than fake news, as Soares asks: as political leaders become disseminators of inaccurate information, how do we prevent that information from being spread?
