Panel, Conference Presentation
Media and Trust: A Global Concern
Milken InstituteHeng Wing Chan, Stephen Salyer, Gerard Baker, Warren Fernandez, Victor Mallet, Maria A. Ressa, Doug Mellinger, Paul Grunewald
- Maria Ressa plans to compile data on media attacks to demonstrate how social media "cheap armies" could rollback democracy in 30 of 65 countries, citing a November 2017 Freedom House report, while expecting to face an average of 90 hate messages per hour for her team during peak periods.
- Warren Fernandez expects subscription numbers to rise following a premium paywall decision, anticipating traffic surges during major events like the Kim Trump summit or Malaysian elections, and plans to shift the business model balance back to subscriptions to fund journalism.
- Victor Mallet predicts that press freedoms in East and South Asia are becoming more difficult, expects traditional media in Cambodia, Vietnam, and Thailand to change significantly, and anticipates the Foreign Correspondence Club event will set a precedent for holding legal events despite government pressure.
- Jerry Baker predicts that 69% of Gallup respondents report declining media trust over the last decade, with 94% of Republicans and 75% of independents citing decline, and expects that 80% of major US newsroom journalists are located in New York City, Washington DC, San Francisco, or Los Angeles.
- Stephen Salyer expects that 97% of new digital ad spend is going to Google and Facebook, predicting social platforms cannot replicate traditional accountability rules and that state-sponsored hate in the Global South could result in loss of life.
- The panel anticipates that the information ecosystem favors the "voice with the loudest megaphone" to control narratives, while Maria Ressa notes that repeated lies can make truth inaccessible, and Warren Fernandez expects audiences to seek reliable sources and engage directly with journalists.
- Warren Fernandez and Maria Ressa plan to shift toward audience engagement and subscription funding to address the lack of a business case for good journalism, which is expected to be necessary to combat fake news.
- Jerry Baker and Victor Mallet discuss the historical decline in trust, with Baker predicting a repeat of the "creative destruction" seen in the 1930s and 1960s, while Mallet notes that traditional media failed to report from the "heartlands," contributing to prediction failures regarding the Trump victory.
- Jerry Baker expects the industry to examine recruitment and newsroom diversity to address the perception of a monolithic left-of-center worldview, as right-wing alternatives like Breitbart have emerged to offer a different perspective.
- Stephen Salyer predicts societal regret if the free press disappears, countering arguments for greater government control which he believes fly in the face of the panel's consensus on the necessity of a free press.