Whose values?
Which shall shape journalism’s future? Values established by algorithms? Clickbait? Media revitalized by required journalism in schools? Democracy may hinge on which society values
by Jan Ewell
“Everyone is so friggin’ crazy! I’m going to quit reading the news and unsubscribe from everything,” a friend said to me.
I asked what caused her despair. She is an intelligent woman, a medical professional with her own practice. She sent me a link to a Scientific American article.
As a retired journalism teacher, I am called upon at least once a week to justify press decisions or to assuage the livid or the depressed. At that moment my friend was one of the livid.
Her link https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/nominees-for-a-science-award-were-all-white-men-nobody-won/ takes me to “Nominees for a Science Award Were All White Men—Nobody Won.”
The deck, the sentence below the headline in medium type, reads, “The decision has triggered a spirited dialogue among AGU members and other earth scientists about the persistent lack of diversity in science awards — and how to address it.”
To me this reads like a good-news article. Scientists are arguing—even heatedly—about a complicated issue, citing facts, carving out nuanced positions and perhaps sparking a bigger conversation inside science. They are arguing publicly, and Scientific American published 2,300 words about it.
That is how science works.
That should be how democracy works.
That is also how responsible journalism works.
To me this reads like a good-news article. Scientists are arguing—even heatedly—about a complicated issue, citing facts, carving out nuanced positions and perhaps sparking a bigger conversation inside science. They are arguing publicly, and Scientific American published 2,300 words about it. That is how science works. That should be how democracy works. That is also how responsible journalism works.
My friend however did not find the story while thumbing through her copy of Scientific American, nor does she regularly follow cryosphere science or the American Geophysical Union, though she is interested in science. How did she happen on this story?
An algorithm of some sort decided that she should see it.
My friend tells me she quit Facebook, but we learned this week from Frances Haugen, the Facebook product manager-turned-whistle-blower that Facebook’s algorithm values “angry” emojis five times more than “likes.” https://www.washingtonpost.com/the-seven/2021/10/26/what-to-know-for-october-26
Strong emotions create clicks and profits for Facebook. Is it merely an inadvertent side effect that the algorithm also creates rage, despair and disengagement from democratic processes and from journalism, reactions just like my friend’s?
Surely Facebook is not the only technology company in on this secret.
Her next question is also one I hear often. “Why don’t we read about this in the mainstream media? They are covering this up!”
On a calmer day, I would tell her what almost all Journalism One students know, that ethical media chooses where to put its resources and what to publish based on some version of the seven news values, values I taught and my students wrestled with as they chose the stories to cover in their publications: impact, timeliness, prominence, conflict, human interest, proximity and oddity. The cryosphere award story qualifies under only one of these values for the non-specialist reader–conflict.
Scholastic journalism does more than any other course to create intelligent consumers of media. When students with clear press rights struggle to apply core news value in their own publications and media, not just in college, but in high school and even in middle school, they become savvy consumers of media
I too wish the news media would cover some stories more or more deeply than they do. I read four major American newspapers and consume other types of media. Each publication applies the news values differently. Some will move a story up or down its digital page based on how often it is read. I need to continually consider my source, its news sense, and the type of media I am consuming. I also need to read more than the headline and deck.
How do we equip our students to navigate this difficult terrain that seems to be derailing my friend? Scholastic journalism does more than any other course to create intelligent consumers of media. When students with clear press rights struggle to apply core news value in their own publications and media, not just in college, but in high school and even in middle school, they become savvy consumers of media.
Quality journalism programs should be available, perhaps even mandatory, in every school. Universities should weigh journalism experience heavily in their admissions process.
This is a big ask, but we have no better tool to protect our students from algorithms whose psychotic-like focus is on clicks and profits as they create rage, despair and disengagement.