Hey everyone,
Josh Sternberg, Adweek's media and tech editor, here. Last week, my esteemed colleague Sara Jerde reported on the new hot audience target for media companies: parenting.
We've witnessed the rise of the "mommy" and "daddy" blogger, who, optimistically, connected with other parents about their personal lives. But the internet has also, Jerde writes, "provided [parental] anxieties and insomnia bottomless rabbit holes to fall into chock full of 'advice' on how best to parent. Not all of that content is based on science or is even factual."
Now throw in a media business model predicated on chasing pageviews (setting a race-to-the-bottom mindset for both business and content), the growing populism of “fake news,” not to mention the social platforms, and it's a perfect time for trusted news organizations, like the New York Times, HuffPost and The Week, to use science- and fact-based reporting for the millions of parents looking to know how a high fever can be before rushing to the ER.
This week, however, news orgs have rolled out coronavirus content trying to keep its readers as informed as possible. The New York Times, NBC News, Quartz, and Slate , to name a few, have each rolled out a coronavirus live blog or newsletter. (The NYT, NBC and Slate are all running programmatic units on these pages.)
The coronavirus comes at a time when the President of the United States blasts the media every day for being "fake news." Indeed, yesterday, he took to Twitter to call several outlets, including the NYT and NBC, enemies of the state. This is, in a word, dangerous.
The news media's role, whether parenting columns or articles about zoonotic pandemics threatening everything from business's supply chains to, well, you know, our lives, is to provide the facts as we understand them. Yes, we sometimes get the story wrong. But reporters and editors are driven by facts. Whether on a "regular day" or during a global crisis (financial, health or constitutional), reporting is based on facts and not made up to damage a politician. Lives and livelihoods are at stake.
And while the media is reporting, the platforms, which are often the way people get their information, are in a pickle. On the one hand, Twitter and Facebook are pointing users to information from the CDC and WHO, providing a necessary mechanism to help discern fact from fiction. On the other hand, the on-going game of Whac-A-Mole rages on, as the social sites try to keep up with bad actors spreading misinformation.
Of course, it's even more difficult to stay on top of things when the president calls the coronavirus a hoax and news orgs have to cover it because it is news. Thus leading to the inevitable Trump quote of media being Fake News.
One giant ouroboros of badness.
If you have any parenting advice or even a coronavirus newsletter, let me know with an email. Until next week.
Josh
