I’m Not a Journalist

I’m not a journalist.

“Give us com­ment­ary on cur­rent events.” 

This is com­mon feed­back, but I won’t accom­mod­ate this request. I won’t prom­ise any­one journ­al­ist­ic ser­vices, and I cher­ish the priv­ilege of not hav­ing opin­ions on everything.

Here we go:

I’m Not a Journalist

I’m not try­ing to give any­one the news. I’m not a journalist.

In terms of what I prom­ise and what I don’t prom­ise, I strive to be mind­ful of the fol­low­er con­tract.

Spin Academy | Online PR Courses

The Follower Contract

How can brands bet­ter under­stand fol­low­er engage­ment? Think of every fol­low as an invis­ible contract.

Rules of Engagement

Dear brand,

• Yes, I’m now fol­low­ing you. Congratulations… to you.
• You now have my per­mis­sion to share more of the type of con­tent that first attrac­ted me to your brand.
• I will determ­ine how to engage on a case-by-case basis based on my situ­ation, not yours.
• I fol­lowed you based on your past con­tent, so don’t be sur­prised if I lose interest (or unfol­low you) if you change your con­tent strategy.
• If you change your con­tent strategy, I might stop enga­ging instead of unfol­low­ing. This won’t be great for your algorithmic stats, but I don’t care about such things.
• To be clear, my fol­low is not a ‘pay­ment’ for your past accom­plish­ments but an ‘advance pay­ment’ for what I expect from you in the future.
• It would be best if you always pre­sup­posed that I’m inter­ested in myself and my friends first and then in your brand — maybe.
• Until we part ways, I’d appre­ci­ate your clar­ity about my poten­tial involve­ment in your cause. After all, this is all about me, not you.

Best regards,
Your New Follower

Think of every single fol­low­er, fan, and sub­scriber hav­ing such an agree­ment with your brand.

Learn more: The Follower Contract

💡 Subscribe and get a free ebook on how to get bet­ter PR.

Since I run a busi­ness based on advising organ­isa­tions, I strive to share ever­green con­tent rather than provide news commentary.

If I prom­ise to be a des­tin­a­tion for the latest com­ment­ary on cur­rent events, I must com­mit to deliv­er on that prom­ise long-term.

And that I can­not do.

Learn more: I’m Not a Journalist

The Media Polarisation Model

We often hear how the media cli­mate is “polar­ised” — a known and reas­on­ably well-under­stood effect of clas­sic media logic.

It also seems true that social media logic has amp­li­fied the effects of polar­isa­tion by group­ing people into echo cham­bers where con­firm­a­tion bias, con­ver­sion the­ory, and the hos­tile media effect are allowed to roam freely without any checks and balances.

“Political elites, par­tis­an media, and social media con­trib­ute to soci­et­al-level polit­ic­al polar­iz­a­tion, lead­ing to mis­per­cep­tions of divi­sion among the elect­or­ate and fuel­ing anim­os­ity and actu­al ideo­lo­gic­al polar­iz­a­tion over time.”
Source: Current Opinion in Behavioral Sciences ¹Wilson, A., Parker, V., & Feinberg, M. (2020). Polarization in the con­tem­por­ary polit­ic­al and media land­scape. Current Opinion in Behavioral Sciences, 34, 223 – 228. … Continue read­ing

More pro­foundly, media polar­isa­tion is prob­lem­at­ic because it draws false lines between extremes that aren’t neces­sar­ily per­pen­dic­u­lar. These “false lines” will force oth­er­wise bal­anced media con­sumers to place them­selves between the media-sug­ges­ted extremes.

At the extremes, sheltered by the social safety of a like-minded peer group (i.e. echo cham­ber), it’s pos­sible to dis­reg­ard oppos­ing evid­ence as “attacks” on their pos­i­tion. As the amp­li­fic­a­tion hypo­thes­is states, any such attacks will only strengthen the pos­i­tion of the extremes.

The harder you attack someone verbally, the more you con­vince them of their belief, not yours.

The Post-Truth Zone

The amp­li­fic­a­tion hypo­thes­is sus­tains a post-truth zone at the extremes through media polar­isa­tion. If a) the zone is wide enough and b) the extremes are suf­fi­ciently close to each oth­er, the forced “bal­anced” pos­i­tion between them will also res­ult in the post-truth zone.

“Post-truth is a soci­et­al phe­nomen­on, influ­enced by the expect­a­tion that hon­esty is the default pos­i­tion, and the pub­lic tol­er­ance of inac­cur­ate and undefen­ded alleg­a­tions in polit­ics.”
Source: Nature ²Higgins, K. (2016). Post-truth: a guide for the per­plexed. Nature, 540, 9 – 9. https://​doi​.org/​1​0​.​1​0​3​8​/​5​4​0​0​09a

Since the forced “bal­anced” pos­i­tion will have a hard time shel­ter­ing any­one from our fear of social isol­a­tion, the spir­al of silence par­tially explains why extremes are so effect­ive in silen­cing the major­ity of oth­er­wise bal­anced media con­sumers. ³Silfwer, J. (2020, June 4). The Spiral of Silence. Doctor Spin | The PR Blog. https://​doc​tor​spin​.net/​s​p​i​r​a​l​-​o​f​-​s​i​l​e​n​ce/

Why Media Polarisation is Disturbing

Like every­one else, I have opin­ions. However, as a PR pro­fes­sion­al with 18+ years of exper­i­ence, I can ana­lyse media issues without sid­ing with any of the extremes.

But no mat­ter how pro­fes­sion­al my ana­lys­is of a cur­rent media issue is, I risk blow­back from left and right extremes — with no back­ing from the silent majority. 

Many feel com­pelled by the news media to choose between out­land­ish extremes — or settle for an equally out­land­ish middle ground.

Media trends tend to be cyc­lic­al, and I estim­ate that the post-truth era peaked in 2019. My hope, how­ever, is that the pan­dem­ic, fol­lowed by glob­al infla­tion and AI pro­gress, will dampen the media’s interest in extreme pos­i­tions and shrink the width of the post-truth zone.

“Post-truth com­mu­nic­a­tion has shaped our under­stand­ing of truth, polit­ics, and the media, with its impact on pub­lic policy, his­tory, and social media.”
Source: Social Studies of Science ⁴Sismondo, S. (2017). Post-truth? Social Studies of Science, 47, 3 — 6. https://​doi​.org/​1​0​.​1​1​7​7​/​0​3​0​6​3​1​2​7​1​7​6​9​2​076

Still, it’s dis­turb­ing that the ration­al busi­ness decision for many aca­dem­ics, pro­fes­sion­als, and organ­isa­tions is to stra­tegic­ally steer clear of top­ics taken “host­age” by left and right extrem­ists — or for organ­isa­tions to opt for the media black­out tac­tic.

Normalise Not Having an Opinion

More often than not, in a post-truth soci­ety, hav­ing no opin­ion sud­denly seems like the only ration­al escape.

My opin­ion?
Let’s nor­m­al­ise not hav­ing one.

The iron pre­scrip­tion (men­tal mod­el). Senior advisor Charlie Munger argued: “I have what I call an ‘iron pre­scrip­tion’ that helps me keep sane when I nat­ur­ally drift toward pre­fer­ring one ideo­logy over anoth­er. I feel that I’m not entitled to have an opin­ion unless I can state the argu­ments against my pos­i­tion bet­ter than the people who are in oppos­i­tion. I think that I am qual­i­fied to speak only when I’ve reached that state” (Knodell, 2016). ⁵Knodell, P. A. (2016). All I want to know is where I’m going to die so I’ll nev­er go there: Buffett & Munger – A study in sim­pli­city and uncom­mon, com­mon sense. PAK Publishing.

Learn more: The Media Polarisation Model

I’m Not Even On the Spectrum

All journ­al­ism today has gone polit­ic­al. They’ve gone either far left or far right.

It’s a shame, really. Many news stor­ies are worth ana­lys­ing from a non-extrem­ist per­spect­ive. However, the dis­course around cur­rent events is much too polar­ised, and as a per­son who favours win-win and bal­ance in my per­son­al life, I refuse to incentiv­ise extreme positions.

It’s a for­cing myth per­pet­rated by both the left and the right that all com­pet­ent indi­vidu­als choos­ing the silent path still favor one side over the other.

Well, I don’t.
I’m not even on the spec­trum between their positions.

THANKS FOR READING.
Need PR help? Hire me here.

What should you study next?

Spin Academy | Online PR Courses

Spin’s PR School: Free Media PR Course

Elevate your pub­lic rela­tions skills with this free Media PR Course—a must-have resource for all aspir­ing pub­lic rela­tions pro­fes­sion­als. Boost your career now!

Media Theory

• The Shannon-Weaver Model of Communication
• The Spiral of Silence
• Conversion Theory: The Disproportionate Influence of Minorities
• The Hostile Media Effect
• Information Asymmetry (Informed Minority Advantage)
• The Bandwagon Effect: Momentum Is Everything
• The Media Polarisation Model

Media Logic

• Media Logic is Dead, Long Live Media Logic
• Social Media Logic

Journalism

• Public Relations vs Journalism
• How To Convert News Junkies
• Breaking the News
• Confirmation Bias in the Media

Digital Media

• The Electronic Age and The End of the Gutenberg Galaxy
• Echo Chambers: Algorithmic Confirmation Bias

Learn more: All Free PR Courses

💡 Subscribe and get a free ebook on how to get bet­ter PR.