News organisations are seeing trust in them fragmenting, alongside the fact that more and more people are choosing to avoid information. Emma Theedom, Head of Audiences for BBC News and World Service and Tav Klitgaard, CEO at Zetland, provided insight and practical solutions to this issue, through their session “How to Make News Better. Connecting Journalists and Audiences for Meaningful News”.
At first, Emma Theedom explained the news avoidance aspect, which plays a crucial part in re-engaging the broad audience in the news: the surge of information, especially in digital and audio form, the wide variety that accompanies it and its -mostly- negative or even mis/disinformed tone are defining factors for people to feel the need to distance themselves from the current affairs. However, Emma pointed out that complete news avoidance is actually rare; rather, there is a gradation that ranges from total distancing to active consumption.
To combat this phenomenon, Emma shared the tactics that BBC had adopted, in order to re-attract people to the news and eventually, regain their trust. These include, from the journalists’ part, making the agenda more broad and more humane, and as for the audience per se, giving them back the sense of control of their news feed, while allowing them to tailor it accordingly to their preferences.
Tav Klitgaard presented Zetland, as a “modern media group” that produces engaging news content, with the aim of “making the news not feel like homework”, as he mentioned. In Zetland they have observed certain motifs in information consumption: it is audio-centered now, curated by relevancy, with captivating tech visuals, and it allows the audience to actively contribute to the agenda, making it more personable and thus, more trustful. The news content must be mediated in order to bring out the best possible experience for the consumer, particularly for the younger audience that does care about current affairs, as long as it is the information is served to them in a suitable way.
Both speakers came to one conclusion: “We need to make people understand that news is not bad for them. The future of trust is human and personable”.
image © Afroditi Zaggana
