The proliferation of social media has forever changed how people consume news.
Alex Mahadevan, the director of MediaWise at Poynter Institute, speaks with WUSF's Matthew Peddie, host of "Florida Matters" and the podcast "Our Changing State," about the present and future of election media coverage.
“People are turning away from traditional media,” said Mahadevan. “The biggest example of that is the Washington Post. They've really struggled with business now that they've lost a lot of subscribers. Their business model is struggling.”
Why are people turning away from traditional media?
“People are seeking out information on TikTok, Instagram, in newsletters — this fragmented media that is all over the place,” said Mahadevan.
“People are going to news outlets, unfortunately, that match their biases. So they're going to an influencer on TikTok who agrees with how they feel about the world, and they're going to media platforms that match their information consumption habits.”
Fact-checking is king
In the age of widespread misinformation and the abuse of AI to serve malign agendas, fact-checking content tremendously benefits users despite its less glamorous nature.
“I still wholeheartedly agree that fact checking is the most important and most impactful way to cover elections, because fact checkers cut through all of the rhetoric,” said Mahadevan. “They get right to whether this policy that this politician is promoting works, whether the rhetoric that they're throwing around is legitimate or not.”
Fact-checkers are not bereft of challenges, however. The same way politicians can disregard journalists, the same can be said about fact-checkers.
“I think the median voter is losing trust in journalism as a whole,” said Mahadevan.
This proves a compounded struggle for fact-checkers, who are already burdened with the cutthroat turn-around time to verify claims and the need for accuracy.
There’s a simple solution, according to Mahadevan, but a rather costly one.
“The dream for me, and the thing that would be most helpful for voters, is if we could wave a magic wand, and every community had a local newspaper and two, if I wave that wand again, and every one of those local newspapers had a fact-checker on staff,” said Mahadevan.
This allows journalists at the local community to be at the forefront of delivering news, who build transparency by showing the work that goes into reporting and fact-checking. Voters, as a result, gain more confidence in the accuracy of the information and their local news outlet.
In the meantime, voters need to make sure they’re checking editorial and correction policies closely and consume news from highly reputable news sites.
Moving beyond the horse race
“It is very easy to chase clicks with presenting every single poll that comes out or every single thing that happens to a candidate,” said Mahadevan.
This is especially relevant in a day and age where news consumers are constantly bombarded with countless forms of media competing for attention.
While horse race journalism, which focuses on polls and candidate movements, serves a purpose, it should not dominate election coverage.
“If you make every single movement, every single event that happens about who's winning or losing, then you're not giving the voters anything deep investigative reporting,” said Mahadevan.
Meet voters where they’re at
As voters are flocking to social media sites for election coverage, news outlets must adapt.
“I'd love to see more news outlets experimenting with vertical video to reach younger viewers with good information about candidates,” said Mahadevan, “so they can fill that vacuum that's usually filled by misinformation on Instagram and TikTok.”
Transforming investigative reporting into bite-sized social media content could be the game-changer in the fight against misinformation.
