An online dispute emerged this week between a Nobel Peace Prize-winning journalist and the academics who publish one of the most widely known reports on the state of digital news around the world.
Maria Ressa, the Filipina founder of the independent news site Rappler, who shared the 2021 Peace Prize for her work, said that the Reuters Institute Digital News Report used faulty methodology to measure audience trust, allowing it to be weaponized to attack journalists.
“It’s not enough to be sorry when your work is used to attack journalists in ‘inconvenient’ countries. Journalism research has no integrity if it endangers journalists at risk,” she said in a Twitter thread that echoed arguments she and Rappler have made after previous years’ reports were released.
The Digital News Report surveys audiences in six continents and 46 markets and lays out key findings about how average people find information about the world around them, including trust of news brands. Among those surveyed in the Philippines, Rappler received the lowest “trust” score and the highest “distrust” percentage, at 33%, of the outlets listed.
The Reuters Institute for the Study of Journalism, based at Oxford University, tweeted in reply, “We are sorry our work has been abused and Maria Ressa thinks our methodology risks undermining media in the Global South.”
Institute director Rasmus Kleis Nielsen wrote in a column that the institute had reviewed its methodology and considers it sound, but said “our research shouldn’t be abused, for example, to make false claims that Rappler is the least trusted (or the most distrusted) news organisation in the Philippines. We have pushed back against such abuse in the past and will do so again.”
Nielsen said the institute consistently reviews its methodology and that Ressa had been involved in that process previously. Ressa told The Guardian that she resigned from the Reuters Institute advisory board last year because of her concerns.
“Government officials were quoting Oxford University’s Reuters Institute for the Study of Journalism to attack us,” she told The Guardian.
An analysis piece in Rappler after last year’s report said the report did note that “independent outlets respected for their reporting on those in positions of power are often actively distrusted by supporters of the politicians in question.” But writer Gemma Mendoza said the report stops short of “drawing a causal relationship between online disinformation and trust” and fails to account for social media’s influence as well.
Washington Post media writer Paul Farhi, while not addressing Ressa’s remarks, tweeted about the report: “These ‘trust’ in media surveys rarely ask a relevant follow-up question: When was the last time you read/saw/heard news from the outfit you say you do or don’t trust? They presume people have direct experience w/ multiple news sources.”
Michigan news director asks reporters to tone down Pride Month coverage to not upset conservative viewers
A news director at the Grand Rapids, Michigan, television station WOOD-TV reportedly sent staff an internal memo to tone down Pride Month coverage to not upset conservative viewers.
“If we are covering Pride events we need to consider how to make the story balanced and get both sides of the issue,” assistant news director Amy Fox wrote in the memo, published initially by broadcast news blog FTVLive and obtained by The Desk, a media news blog run by independent journalist Matthew Keys.
The memo said that WOOD-TV had received pushback from viewers who are not happy to see Pride-related stories, with Fox writing that since west Michigan is a conservative area, stories related to LGBTQ+ issues are polarizing to their viewers.
After news broke of the memo, WOOD-TV staffers shared their thoughts online.
“This memo was met with immediate pushback from our newsroom. The guidance is not being followed,” WOOD-TV executive producer Luke Stier tweeted Thursday morning. “The only two people involved in its creation have been removed from any discussions surrounding @WOODTV Pride coverage as our corporation conducts a thorough investigation.”
“It has been an awfully difficult week for our newsroom,” WOOD-TV producer Kyle McIlmurray tweeted. “The silver lining in this mess is that our staff is united in pushing back on this ridiculous and hurtful memo that was sent out.”
The memo — and its call to get “both sides” of the story — encapsulates what we shouldn’t mean when we talk about journalistic objectivity. Getting both sides of every issue is a noble ideal in theory, but quickly gets muddied when one of those sides is in the middle of a campaign to protest public signs of queer existence.
Most journalists with experience in local newsrooms have been on the receiving end of partisan screeds delivered via email, social media or snail mail, with audience members sharing unprompted essays or slur-ridden notes. These messages are usually treated like the intrusion that they are, quickly deleted or forwarded to management if there’s a legitimate security concern.
What doesn’t usually happen is a mandate to change how hot-button issues are covered on the whims of a handful of local cranks. We should want a local news ecosystem that legitimately responds to the needs of the community — not fickle, hateful wants dictated by people who would rather be shielded from anyone different from them.
Pew Research Center profiles top-ranked podcasts
Around a quarter of top-ranked podcasts fall into the true crime genre, a new Pew Research Center profile of the podcasting industry highlights, with politics and pop culture trailing behind.
The study looked at 451 of the top-ranked podcasts in the United States for a snapshot of the podcast landscape, which has seen listenership steadily increase over the years.
Other highlights include:
- 15% of top podcasts have a news focus, while 18% are affiliated with news organizations
- 51% of top-ranked podcasts produce videos to accompany most episodes
- Top-ranked podcasts use a variety of formats, ranging from deep reporting, interview segments and commentary
- A majority of top-ranked podcasts (58%) feature a single host
- Top podcasts tend to be less than an hour long, with an average episode length of less than 50 minutes last year
- Around half (47%) of top-ranked podcasts turn to audiences for direct financial support, through subscriptions, donations and merchandise.
Read the full report here.
Media tidbits
- In Mother Jones, a package worth your time examining the aftermath and lingering effects of #MeToo across culture, politics, the press, backlash and more. It’s “After MeToo.”
- The USA Today Network-Florida has hired an inaugural First Amendment reporter. According to an announcement Thursday, Douglas Soule, who has been with the network as the statewide government accountability reporter since last year, will work to “highlight and explain local issues related to the First Amendment, examining their impact on Floridians and their daily lives, countering disinformation with facts, and producing compelling journalism on what can sometimes seem like abstract concepts.”
- The Senate Judiciary Committee moved forward with legislation to allow news organizations to jointly bargain against Big Tech platforms for a bigger share of revenue from online advertising. CNN’s Brian Fung has more.
Today’s edition of the Poynter Report was written by Annie Aguiar, Amaris Castillo and Jennifer Orsi.
More resources for journalists
- Time for a new job? Your future employer is looking for you on The Media Job Board — Powered by Poynter, Editor & Publisher and America’s Newspapers. Search now!
- Subscribe to Poynter’s Friday newsletter, Open Tabs with Poynter managing editor Ren LaForme, and get behind-the-scenes stories only available to subscribers.
- Level Up: Critical Skills for Local Reporters (Oct. 3-Nov. 14) (Seminar) — Apply by Aug. 31.
Have feedback or a tip? Email Poynter senior media writer Tom Jones at tjones@poynter.org.
The Poynter Report is our daily media newsletter. To have it delivered to your inbox Monday-Friday, sign up here.
