Insights & Musings on News Sources
(and even some PR advice if you read all the way to the end)
I’ve been reading a lot of news about where people get their news. In sum: it’s all over the place, depending on age, gender, geography, education, and politics. Largely, many of us get our news from social media. TL;DR, Gen Z gets their news** from Instagram.*
The job of strategic communicators gets frequently tougher because the media landscape is constantly evolving and shifting under our feet.
I won’t wax poetic about the dearth of media outlets, or the terrifying nature of AI-generated news outlets with “virtual journalists”, though you should definitely read up on them. While some of my peers in communications have expressed concern that AI will eat up their job, I’m not at all threatened considering that the delicate balancing act of partnering traditional sources of media with social media, digital ads, owned media, etc. changes BY THE DAY. Anyway…
This Axios piece was of particular interest because it highlights not just where the younger generations get their news, but from WHOM they get it:
Younger audiences are more likely to follow specific journalists than they are news organizations, according to dozens of Gen Z news consumers Axios spoke with.
"Modern journalists are creators too," Jordan Alperin, associate creative strategist at Day One Agency, told Axios. "They have a presence on social media and have branded themselves as experts that we can relate to and trust, which is why we will follow them beyond just the stories they write."
Photo by Axios
This made total sense to me. As a consumer, I’m way more likely to interact with a reporter who posts their story and shares their insights than a general post from their news outlet. People want to interact with, well, other people.
It brings me back to an early PR lesson: Companies don’t speak. People do. Our clients will sometimes ask if we can do a statement or quote from them, attributed to the organization itself. Technically we can... but journalistic standards favor quoting actual people. An organization can’t do an interview, so should it be able to do a statement? An organization can’t speak - it’s an it, not a someone. It’s also about relatability for the audience.
In case you haven’t figured out where this is going… this lesson doesn’t apply just to news organizations. We spend a LOT of time at Resch on brand strategy: Creating cohesion across all a client’s communications, both internal and external. Then we tell them: that brand must extend to your people. It’s wise to consider setting a regular cadence for how often you’d like members of your organization to post on their own social media accounts. We’re all part of a brand, whether we like it or not. Because our work speaks for the brand.
It can feel icky (okay, self-promotional) to post about your work. But that’s why your audience exists. Anyone who does purposeful work has a story to share: what you’re doing, why you do it, what keeps you up at night. So post about it! Repost away on those news stories that interest you. Share data that affects your work. Who wants to follow people who don’t post anything? Not me. And definitely not Gen Z.
*According to Axios, 71 percent of Gen Z gets news off Instagram. I’ve never gotten news off Instagram, which is how I know I’m a solid two decades away from ever relating to that Gen.
**Full disclosure, I’m not sure what counts as news here. I think that’s a much longer blog post for a much less busy month.
