The average age of people who get their news from broadcast or cable television networks is over 60 and only going higher. The vast majority of young people get their news from social media and have never even read a newspaper. Mainstream news sources are withering, leaving an increasingly divided news landscape where people can’t even agree on the truth. As Straight Arrow News contributor Ruben Navarrette explains, we need to find a way to lure consumers toward the center.
These days, Americans have more choices than ever, and many of them have chosen not to believe or trust big media.
I predict that in 2023 this trend will continue to intensify. Traditional media outlets will find themselves more and more on the defensive, having to prove that they’re fair and not biased in one direction or the other. Still, the public will become increasingly suspicious that the national conversation is being shaped by people who don’t think like them or see the world the way they do.
Meanwhile, the new media labels will expand their offerings, and new infotainment brands will spring up. Bloggers, columnists, media entrepreneurs will continue to build their personal media ecosystems without needing or craving validation from the stalwarts of big media.
The good news is that media consumers will continue to have more and more choices, and independent thought is likely to thrive. After all, less corporate influence should result in greater independence.
The bad news is that many of these ecosystems may turn into echo chambers. So if you go into an ideological cavern to be around like-minded people, your experience is going to be stifling and one-dimensional. Either way, there’s no going back. Gone are the days of media monopolies and those who run media companies trying to tell us not just what happened, but what to think about what happened.
As a child in the 1970s, I grew up watching a color television set with just three channels, one for each major TV network. Then came cable and satellite and streaming. And well you get the picture.
In the 1990s, when I began my career as a journalist, many U.S. cities had just one newspaper. My teenagers don’t even know what a newspaper feels like in their hands. In the 2020s, the major media companies have gone from trying to control and shape and manipulate new media to more often being overrun and outplayed by them. They’re still playing catch up. These media trends are unsettling. Change usually is, but they’re likely to be positive, especially if they lure consumers away from the extremes and toward the place where we all need to be: the center. If that happens, I predict we Americans will be better off.
