The News Media Alliance has launched a national campaign focused on combatting the increasing prevalence of fake news. The campaign, Support Real News, shines a light on the harm to the public caused by fake news and the importance of real news produced by respected, trusted news organizations employing high-quality, investigative journalists. The campaign calls on the public to support real news by subscribing to a local newspaper and supporting investigative journalism through donating to the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists (ICIJ). ICIJ, Inland Press Association and Local Media Consortium are partners of the campaign.
“We are encouraged by the efforts of our members and other organizations to call attention to the growing fake news problem and to promote the value of real news,” said Alliance President and CEO David Chavern. “As the association that represents the news media industry, fighting fake news is one of the most important things the News Media Alliance can do for our members right now. Our campaign raises awareness of the damage that can be and is being caused by fake news, and to demonstrate why the continued presence of real news organizations is vital to a strong democracy.”
The Alliance has developed a variety of campaign resources leveraging digital, social, video, and print formats. The campaign, which lives on the Alliance website, includes two colorful ads in print and digital formats; a 90-second online video; social media graphics and profile badge; blog posts and an Op-ed by Chavern. The ICIJ is also posting the ads on its website. “We are delighted to be included in this important campaign, which echoes our mission to support and enable investigative journalism,” said Gerard Ryle, Director at ICIJ.
Additional partners of the campaign include Inland Press and the Local Media Consortium (LMC). “We wanted to show our support for this important initiative and encourage our members to participate,” stated Doug Hiemstra, President, Inland Press. “The more news organizations participate, the greater impact we can have.” “We have all been forced to deal with fake news,” stated Rusty Coats, Executive Director of the LMC. “Which is why we should all come together to address it.”
“Our hope is for news media organizations to share our campaign and amplify our message, and for the public to respond by supporting real news and the journalists who make it all possible,” stated Chavern. For more information, visit www.newsmediaalliance.org/supportrealnews.
The News Media Alliance is a nonprofit organization representing nearly 2,000 news organizations and their multiplatform businesses in the United States and Canada. Alliance members include print, digital and mobile publishers of original news content. Headquartered near Washington, D.C., in Arlington, Va., the association focuses on ensuring the future of news media through communication, research, advocacy and innovation. Information about the News Media Alliance (formerly NAA) can be found at www.newsmediaalliance.org.
Lindsey Loving
Lindsey is the Communications Manager for the News Media Alliance. Prior to joining the Alliance, she led communications for a food and nutrition nonprofit in Washington, D.C. for over eight years. lindsey@newsmediaalliance.org 571.366.1009
The Panama Papers: For people who love journalism, it’s a “good-news bad-news” story. It’s a good news story because this work demonstrates that despite declining newspaper revenues, shrinking television audiences, and a global, hyper-competitive business environment, excellent investigative journalism can still be done, and be done across borders of employment, medium, and nationality.
But the Panama Papers are also bad news because the rise of consortiums like the ICIJ (itself a project of the Center for Public Integrity), are the result of mainstream news outlets suffering under rapidly declining revenues and being unable to fund large-scale reporting ventures by themselves. The success of the Panama Papers represents the failure of a business model, and it’s the model that has paid for most of the serious journalism we in North America have relied upon for most of the twentieth and early twenty-first centuries.
Here in Canada when Postmedia slashed 90 jobs and merged competing newsrooms in Ottawa, Calgary, Edmonton, and Vancouver, the word everywhere was “business.” Implicitly or explicitly, we heard: It’s a business decision. Specifically, Postmedia must think of its bottom line. The situation in Canada’s broadcast world is similar. As viewership declines, television newsrooms are cutting staff. For reasons of economic efficiency, Global News now routinely partners with the Toronto Star for investigative pieces. So broadly speaking, the news business is in trouble.
But we need to stop having this discussion, as if the only thing at stake is company profits. Yes, journalism is a business. For most of our recent history, it has been a part of a capitalist enterprise. However, a true democracy needs tough, independent, outspoken media—regardless of platform—to hold publicly elected officials, and publicly funded institutions, to account. Journalism is more than big business; it’s a sacred trust.
To Subsidize or not to Subsidize
Many Nordic countries have subsidized newspapers for most of the 20th century because they recognize that papers play a unique political and social role that’s invaluable to their democracies. Instead of throwing up their hands and expecting the market to solve the printed press’ waning readership, countries like Sweden are actively searching for effective ways to maintain support of news media and the social benefits they provide.
Over the last year, the Swedish government held an inquiry into the conditions of its daily press, and introduced a new bill to its Riksdag. To be clear, it’s not that Sweden supports only its newspapers; public broadcasting had a monopoly until the early 1990s, but the current focus of inquiry is on newspapers. Riksdag’s website outlines how the bill contains proposals aimed at creating greater incentives for daily papers with operational subsidies to increase readership revenue, while promoting technological development and the innovative business models, so the functions vital to democracy are sustained over the long term.
The Way Forward
The kind of journalism that ICIJ is doing, through the Center for Public Integrity, is paid for by donations from foundations and individuals. The ICIJ does not accept money from governments. Generally, these journalists publish their work on ICIJ’s website, and distribute to NGOs and other interested outlets. Because of the size and impact of the data from the Panama Papers, the Center interested a consortium of newspapers and other media outlets, including the CBC, which were willing to commit staff and resources, and publish the results of the investigation.
While the Panama Paper collaboration offers one positive model, and a future for investigative journalism, it’s not without its drawbacks. Because of the project’s magnitude, Robert Picard of the Reuters Institute at the University of Oxford noted that many people and media organizations were interested in being involved, and in funding this particular work. “But for work that’s theirs and theirs alone,” he said, “they [ICIJ] need more funding. Until you have endowments in place, and they are earning their own income, you have to spend money on what your funders want you to spend it on.”
This might mean that stories that are equally important, but less popular, may not get covered. Again, the model is one that can be motivated entirely by profit and not by considerations of what is in the best interests of the public in a democracy.
Here at home, we need to stop blaming the Internet and harkening back to a golden age of consumer support for news that never was. Given media’s singularly indispensable role, we must acknowledge that other factors besides media demand can influence their profitability and stop pretending that they’re just another business. We need a policy whose purpose is not to shore up existing enterprises, but only the ones that ensure our democratic needs are met.
While newspapers are on the decline, journalism doesn’t have to be. This is an idea that those of us who teach journalism need to push because declining newspaper and legacy media opportunities have led to declining enrollments.
While none can predict the future, the Reuters Institute published a study in 2014, outlining the results of what a sample of news professionals from the U.S. and Europe imagine their profession will look like in years to come. Picard notes sadly, “There is a lot of fear.” The report itself suggests that as institutional employment diminishes, there is a rise of entrepreneurial journalism—where journalists establish small or medium-size enterprises that produce and distribute their own content through websites, or sell syndicated material to other outlets. Usually, these undertakings support one person, or a small co-operative of people, and are focused on local coverage or highly specific topics.
While this model is clearly having some success, as J-Source outlined recently in a piece titled, “journalism startups carve out niches for themselves,” there are concerns about the precarious nature of this labour. “Many people believe the future of journalism is one that will be practiced part-time, or by people who have a partner or a spouse with benefits,” said Picard, about the musings of those in the Reutersstudy.
(This posting is an excerpt from an artcile published in the Spring 2016 issue of Media Magazine published by the Canadian Association of Journalists. You can read read the whole artcile at this link)
Romayne Smith Fullerton is an associate professor in the Faculty of Information and Media Studies at the University of Western Ontario and the current ethics editor for J-Source. Along with Chris Richardson, she is the editor of Covering Canadian Crime: What Journalists Should Know and the Public Should Question (University of Toronto Press, 2016). At present, she is working on a book that compares crime coverage practices in North America with those of select Western European countries.
Canadian supermodel Coco Rocha stars in 35 unique cover art combinations
A Canadian first, FASHION Magazine showcases supermodel Coco Rocha looking fierce on not one, but five different cover images for its April 2017 issue.
Featuring a unique five-cover perforated “flip book” approach, the interactive issue allows readers to play with the cover and customize their favourite look on Coco Rocha for up to 35 unique combinations. Celebrity makeup artist for L’Oréal Paris USA Sir John Barnett worked with FASHION’s Beauty Director, Lesa Hannah, to curate and execute each of Rocha’s unique and on-trend beauty looks.
“This is a great example of two brands coming together to create an exceptional content collaboration that provides surprise and delight for our audiences across all platforms,” says Jacqueline Loch, Vice-President & Group Publisher, Women’s Brands at St. Joseph Communications. “L’Oréal Paris is a wonderful partner and a true innovator in beauty. They are the perfect brand for an editorial integration of this scale, embracing our vision while enabling us to bring the concept to life.”
Rocha—a noted chameleon—brought each look to life, illustrating a different mood for each portrait. The looks are featured on the cover execution and in the 10-page fashion and beauty feature in print as well as in a behind-the-scenes video. The live cover shoot was captured on social media via Instagram, Facebook Live and Twitter, leveraging FASHION’s 2.6 million social media audience and Coco Rocha’s 1.1 million Instagram followers.
“The cover and the issue theme is grounded in the concept of ‘IRL vs. URL,’ a narrative on the In Real Life moments we experience versus our digital dreams,” says Noreen Flanagan, Editor-in Chief, FASHION. “Understanding how and when our IRL and URL lives intersect — or don’t — is the inspiration for this issue.”
The interactive cover pays tribute to this idea via its unique ability to be manipulated based on the reader’s preferences. The issue also takes readers beyond the page with video features that drive to how-to makeup tutorials with Sir John from the photo shoot. “We want to invite our readers to have some fun and celebrate the joy of beauty, and we wanted to create a memorable real-life experience,” says Flanagan. The April cover challenges readers to have their own faceoff with Rocha and post their favourite combination on Instagram with the tag #FMIRLvsURL.
The April issue of FASHION Magazine features photography by Owen Bruce and styling by George Antonopoulos. The print edition of FASHION’s April issue hits newsstands in Canada on March 13 and at select Barnes & Noble locations in the U.S. on March 28.