By Pilar Balet, Principal Consultant & Amanda Rubio, Consultant
We live in a unique historic moment never experienced before: the vastness, speed, weight and connectedness of the global issues are truly singular to the times we currently live in. The climate crisis, elections in more than 60 countries this year, news and harrowing images of human displacements and wars; as well as global uncertainty, misinformation and extremism are all part of our daily lives.
Today, the level of detail we can dig into with every piece of information we’re exposed to, can be overwhelming and fill our minds with despair. Not knowing for sure if what we are watching is real or fake has also taken an important toll on the levels of trust we have in the information that surrounds us every day. According to the 2023 Reuters Institute Digital News Report, the proportion of newsreaders who say they avoid watching and reading news has increased sharply across countries. A significant proportion of younger and less educated people also said they avoid the news because they can be hard to follow or understand, and many others stated that they selectively avoid the news as they have a negative effect on their mood.
Indeed, it’s hard times for communicators and journalists who need to feed and manage a media beast with smaller audiences every day. However, artificial intelligence (AI) and all kinds of technological innovations are opening a new and extraordinary era that will bring, just as the Internet did 30 years ago, new ways to overcome these challenges and take journalism and communications for social change to the next phase.
The way we consume information, whether it is from a media outlet or by following renowned journalists or influencers on social networks, as well as the type of content that we access, play a key role in shaping the storylines we create about the state of the world, the social challenges we face, and their potential solutions. From hope to indifference, from action to passivity, information has the power to make us understand the world we live in as well as our role within it; and, ultimately, drive us to take a stand for it.
So, given the influence that information and news have on our perception of the world and actions, how can we improve the way we produce and consume content to increase our levels of trust and interest? The good news is that social innovation is also spurring the media sector globally. Although the task ahead is humongous, we can already see some green sprouts leading the way to a more trustful and healthy way of producing and disseminating information.
Green sprouts for a more trustful and healthy information system
One of these sprouts is the Solutions Journalism wave we are increasingly seeing across the media sector. This approach investigates and explains how people try to solve shared problems. While journalists usually define news as ‘what’s gone wrong’, solutions journalists expand that approach to also cover the solutions – or potential solutions – to an issue to learn from their successes and failures. The Solutions Journalism Research conducted in 2021 by the Solutions Journalism Network demonstrated that this new paradigm offers key benefits for journalists and news consumers; and also tackles the two major causes of news avoidance: psycho-physical numbing and compassion fatigue.
In relation to journalists, the situation in this profession is concerning for one of our key democratic pillars: a free press. According to The Self-Investigation, a global non-profit organisation led by Pulitzer Prize winner Mar Cabra, 60% of media workers report high levels of anxiety and 1 in 5 state signs of depression. In the specific case of fact-checkers, the levels of post-traumatic stress disorder and burnout are on the rise. “Without healthy journalists it is almost impossible to have good quality journalism”, says Mar Cabra who also experienced burnout at the highest of her career. Born in 2021, The Self-Investigation’s goal is to catalyse a healthy work culture in the media and communication industries by placing well-being and mental health as a core business strategy and value. In three years, this team has already supported 10,700 journalists all over the world.
At Stone Soup, our communications follow a Solutions Journalism ethos, in that we tend to highlight solutions to global problems and the impacts those solutions are having in the real world. We illustrate our examples with figures and focus on the impact we are making in creating a better world. Additionally, mental health is another important aspect of our organisational work culture. We encourage our community members to share about changes we can make to improve their mental health and well-being at work as they feel comfortable, and we strive to address recurring issues. We work diligently to develop solutions that promote a healthy work-life balance, such as offering our staff the option of a four-day work-week.
More control and the other side of the story
We are also happy to see that the control over the spread of damaging or dangerous content on social media increases every day. This is thanks to the work of organisations like the International Fact-Checking Network (IFCN), a network of more than 170 fact-checking organisations globally that advocates for information integrity in the global fight against misinformation and supports fact-checkers through networking, capacity building and collaboration. Their underlying ethos is about accountability in journalism: truth and transparency help people be better informed and equipped to navigate harmful misinformation, which, in turn, can catalyse action where it is really needed. Similarly, The Centre For Countering Digital Hate tackles specifically social media content that undermines human rights by enabling hate and lies, such as Anti-LGBTQ+ discourse, Anti-Muslim discourse, Antisemitism and Misogyny.
In the wake of the recent xenophobic events and social arrest in the UK, organisations such as Migrant Voice are key in challenging anti-migrant attitudes and narratives and changing social perceptions and political systems. This migrant-led non-profit has 14 years’ experience of including migrants’ voices in the centre of the debate about migration, making sure we also get the other side of the story. A similar approach is taken by the Spanish Fundacion porCausa, an organisation led by journalists that works to shift the perception of migration in society and stop the hate narrative. PorCausa produces specific content and media investigations related to migration, as well as provides guides to journalists and comms professionals on how to shift the hate narratives of migrant youth or how to accurately cover migration issues.
At Stone Soup, we support the mission of accountability in journalism and do our bit towards it by publishing our Honesty Report, showcasing the impact our projects are having, both that which works well and that which needs improvement. Furthermore, we are a B Corp, which entails a commitment to accountability and transparency. Additionally, just as the aforementioned organisations work towards shifting anti-migrant and anti-LGBTQ+ narratives and attitudes, Diversity, Equity and Inclusion (DEI) are high priorities within our organisational culture. We have a DEI policy that all community members must read and sign to enter the community. All new community members must complete an interactive DEI training, and we have a DEI Commission safeguarding the diversity of the community and addressing any potential complaints.
The journalism sector has been in a perma-crisis for the last 30 years, ever since the Internet knocked at our doors. Nowadays, new technologies, polarisation, voracious capitalism and artificial intelligence challenge our efforts to improve the quality of content and news consumption levels. Things are changing and the drops in the ocean are happening. However, we need a much bigger wave to change a frenzy system that constantly mutates and changes the rules of the game without notice. Journalists and comms professionals hold one of the four keys to make the information system change; citizens, governments and media outlets hold the other three.
