I’ve noticed a disturbing trend amongst my smarter friends, lately: The tendency to want to switch off from the news. I don’t blame you. But with that in mind, I’ve started a new daily newsletter called Matt Davis Reads The Newspaper So That You Don’t Have To.
It’s a simple public service concept with a dash of wit included, and if you enjoy reading my strategic communications advice, please consider subscribing. (*It’s a separate newsletter from this one, and free to your inbox every morning. Still, I do realize some people only like to hear from me once a week!)
Why is reading the newspaper every day important? Because it builds news literacy. February 3-7 was National News Literacy week, the invention of the News Literacy Project, a D.C.-based nonprofit with a $10 million budget. I’ll let them explain it:
News literacy is the ability to determine the credibility of news and other information and to recognize the standards of fact-based journalism to know what to trust, share and act on.
Obvious question but: Why does news literacy matter? Only 4 out of 10 American students learn how to analyze news stories for bias and credibility in school. The majority of youngsters now gets their news from social media. They want their influencers to digest the day’s headlines and help them figure out what to think.
The organization’s recent survey shows a few trends. The overwhelming majority of teens support media literacy training. But they struggle to differentiate advertising from opinion and news or entertainment content. Nearly half of teens think the press does more to half democracy than protect it, and 80% of teens say they regularly encounter misinformation online. Disturbingly, they also say that they’re often inclined to believe that misinformation.
I don’t want to turn this into a story that blames young people for their shortcomings. But. In the UK, a recent survey of Gen Z showed the majority support a dictatorship. I believe the reason they do is because we’ve done an insufficient job of showing them the role of the news in upholding a democracy.
Over the last few days, for example, the New York Times has done a really good job of chronicling the Trump administration’s resistance to following the law. Today I rounded up stories in the Times discussing the meaning of a “constitutional crisis” and debating whether or not we’re in one (my considered judgement is that we are about 60% in a constitutional crisis).
Is this boring? Well, it’s certainly not fun reading. That’s why I’ve decided to include a few .gif images in my daily roundups. But making the news engaging is not the job of organizations like the New York Times. Their job is to report it.
As members of a semi-civilized society I do feel strongly that it is our collective responsibility to talk with the people around us about why the news matters. Better yet, it is our collective job to engage those around us with the news in a way that does not make them suicidally depressed. That’s not easy. It takes art and care and a concerted spirit of public service. It takes, say, a daily dose of reality, but not a spirit of judgmental preachiness.
Every day I go to the shop, buy a paper, and read it. The guys at the bodega (who all voted for Trump, and with whom I get along, regardless) think I’m the neighborhood eccentric. That’s so crazy. But if reading the newspaper makes me an eccentric, I’m happy to stand by the practice. How about you?
Thanks for reading, as always. Please share this email with anybody you feel might appreciate it.
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Matt Davis is a strategic communications consultant in Manhattan.
