POLYPLEXUS: TRUST IN MEDIA PART 2 WRAP-UP AND PART 3 LAUNCH
So, our second Live Discussion for the Trust in Media project harvested a lot of interesting discussion, ranging from project proposals to scholarly paper to a broad range of interesting ideas and insights.
To see the actual page, go here: https://polyplexus.com/incubator?idIncubator=465&initialTab=discussion
Part 3 has begun. Find it here. Our event is Friday 1–3 EST (10–12 PST). https://polyplexus.com/incubator?idIncubator=467&initialTab=overview
Part 2 wrap-up:
Participants quickly agreed that factors like changing business models, i.e. profit motivations, death of local papers in favor of targeted internet advertising, segmentation of news audience on cable along partisan lines, etc. make straight news reporting rare. Effective, news has become a product, as one Plexor put it, that “boldly tells people what they want to hear or what they fear hearing.” The blur between news and entertainment has led to it being treated more as a narrative or story-building exercise, often covered like sports competition.
There was also a discussion of how news bias could be measured, on the topics of:
(1) Exaggeration of facts or events
(2) Willful misinterpretation of facts or events
(3) Omission of relevant facts or events
(4) Selective investigation of controversial possibilities
(5) Intentionally misleading via language, vague language, or opaque language.
Some interesting discussion points:
1.
Adam Tesligte’s submission of a bias in news chart:
2. Michael Becker’s submission: How To Outsmart Your Own Biases: https://hbr.org/2015/05/outsmart-your-own-biases
3. Michael Labellarte’s Observation that media influence in school and hospital rankings artificially promotes certain institutions and thus lowers overall confidence in rankings and institutions. He indicates that he is working on a ‘White Paper’ on a related topic. It also begs the ‘Better Question’ of what is the proper way to rank and institution of any sort? How do you rank a university fairly?
4. Brad Sweet suggests that one of the problems is that governmental and public institutions have fallen behind in communications technology and internal and external communications platforms and thus are under-delivering and lowering their own credibility.
5. Thomas Greanias points to the fact that the perceived transience and fallibility of institutions which were theoretically to last forever are either mutating beyond recognition, blowing their brands or changing their values to a degree that they are no longer the institutions they claimed to be.
6. In the media, we have to ask whether the WAPO is still really the Paper of Ben Bradlee or Katharine Graham or whether the masthead is like a Coat of Arms hung by illegitimate descendents? Is Harvard the same university that earned it’s vaunted reputation. At what point is an institution not the same institution anymore.
7. Dan Arey put it another way: “How can you be mad at the man if you are the man?
8. Mark Daniels memorably cited the Titanic: “When maintainIng the machine supplants the reason for having the machine, perhaps that is another signal that we don’t have enough lifeboats and are asleep at the Marconi.”
9. Jay Parker put it simply: “Inconsistency in reporting, ‘perceived’ fact vs. opinion, psychological manifestations = chaos.”
10. Doug Lagerstrom pointed out that “Trust is built slowly over time. Institutions value dogma over transparency and accuracy.” By implication, Trust can be destroyed in an instant if not promptly repaired through retraction and contrition.
11. Matt Mihelic, MD, a Polyplexus vet, triggered a discussion of definition in Trust and Michael Becker supplied evidence of an answer: Guidelines for Measuring Trust in Organizations (Updated) | Institute for Public Relation https://instituteforpr.org/guidelines-for-measuring-trust-in-organizations-2/. And ‘Team Clock’ founder Steve Ritter, a first timer on Polyplexus actually supplied two evidence cards (it is very rare for first timers to post evidence cards. https://polyplexus.com/incubator?idIncubator=465&initialTab=evidence
A lot more happened. Our apologies for anything we missed. There was a lot of activity in last Friday’s live event.
Please Join us again this Friday or Part 3 of Trust in Media. https://polyplexus.com/incubator?idIncubator=467&initialTab=overview
Flint and Zane Dille
