What the Sarah Palin anti-media counteroffensive means about trust

The Los Angeles Times posted an article today about the intense anti-media statements that were made at the Republican National Convention. Near the end of the piece, Russ Stanton, editor of the LA Times, says that “aggressive criticism of the media is part of the political landscape.”

In short, blaming the media is a classic political tactic. I agree.

But why is it such a go-to cry for the Republican party? Why does it continue to resonate with the American public?

These are uncomfortable questions that many big media outlets need to face head on. Soon.

Trust

The news industry is facing a gargantuan PR problem.

The fact that Republican strategists consistently (and effectively) blame the media for liberal bias indicates that a large chunk of America harbors a healthy skepticism about big media. I personally know several people who think that while the New York Times tends to write unbiased articles, they make political statement in what they choose to cover.

There is a lot of mistrust out there. And it’s mostly a PR issue.

For the most part, the media tries very hard to report accurately, quickly, and without bias. To their credit, the major media outlets have consistently covered all the criticism fired their way in this political season (although sometimes it seemed a bit self-indulgent).

Despite all this, trust in the media is rapidly disappearing, especially in the online audience.

Asking why is not enough

The real question is “what can you do about it?”

Otherwise it’s a little bit like diagnosing a case of Tuberculosis, and then just hanging out for a bit while it kills you.

The solution is up for grabs, but I think I’ve heard it from lots of intelligent people that newspapers need to inject some personality into their work. This jives with what I tell my clients about social media: connecting with consumers in the digital world means being authentic, transparent, and colloquial.

Authenticity and transparency are things that newspapers are pretty good it. Colloquial is where they tend to suffer.

I’ve said before that the first thing I would do with a newspaper is tell my reporters to start using first person. I’m older and wiser now, so instead I think I’d tell them to start using first person where appropriate.

But it seems obvious to me that newspapers need to develop personal connections with their audiences, and that really means that journalists need to develop personal connections with their audiences, because nobody can have a personal connection with a corporate entity.

Hop to it.

Think that was interesting? Wait ’till you read everything else! Subscribe to the RSS feed today (it’s free).