The last decade has seen media organisations throughout the world struggle to adapt to technological disruption as well as the emergence and rapid growth of social media. The consequent challenges of dealing with fragmented attention spans and general issues of disengagement, not to mention business models or revenue streams which are no longer fit for purpose, have for many weakened the role of journalistic gatekeepers. Recent years have also witnessed a growing trust deficit emerge between industry, government, the media and the public they seek to engage.
As an unprecedented, (global) public health emergency unfolds, ensuring official communication from relevant authorities reach the public is paramount. Public trust in the overall response to the evolving crisis has shown signs of eroding and not just towards public health authorities, international organisations and national governments but also towards industry as well as the media.
Faced with this evolving health emergency, is the raft of information, misinformation and fake news concerning COVID-19 perhaps an opportunity for reputable media organisations to work together to restore confidence and mitigate growing fear and scare-mongering by helping citizens cut through the excessive noise to find and absorb the essential facts?
Notwithstanding the importance of independent journalism and its role to ensure credible, intelligent, fact-checked news reaches the public; the recent prevailing discourse highlights that media companies are struggling to deal with issues of disengagement, news avoidance and general cynical and negative views towards reporting.
Rather than critique the overall communication approach, preparedness or ability of the relevant authorities to communicate with the public, this piece seeks to propose just one possible approach to ensure the public has access to factual and official information.
The landscape has vastly changed
At the time of the SARS outbreak in 2002, the absence of mobile technology as we know it today, as well as social media, meant that the flow of information to affected regions was more traditional in format focusing on print, radio, and television. Indeed, we have come a long way in the 100 years since the Spanish flu, the largest influenza pandemic to date. Coinciding with the First World War, many countries sought to suppress any information about the severity of that outbreak to avoid appearing weak in the face of enemies. Today, scientists from several international and regional authorities as well as universities and pharmaceutical companies across the world are committed to learning more about the evolving nature of this virus to determine possible treatments and eventual vaccinations as quickly as possible.
An opportunity to support a coordinated response
Since the virus first emerged in China last December, misinformation and rumours regarding COVID-19 exacerbate the challenges already faced by public health officials. As such, I have outlined below some ways in which media organisations could support a coordinated response through the transmission of clear, accurate and timely information via all possible means.
- Facilitate communication from official public health sources: As the situation continues to rapidly evolve, guide the public to reputable sources, making it easier for them to avoid or filter out fake news sources. Focus on replicating and sharing information from the credible sources who are leading the response to the emergency. These include national public health authorities, as well as the WHO which publishes daily situation reports.
- Relax paywalls: As the number of media outlets add registration and paywalls to ensure high-quality journalism and remain viable, at this time, it is essential to ensure that news is not confined to those who can afford to pay for it while the masses rely on information transmitted via social media or avoid the news altogether.
- 24-hour news cycle: As online news platforms operate on a 24-hour news cycle, streamline and prioritise access to the latest and relevant updates from longer-form analyses of the evolving situation to help curb reader fatigue.
- Social media platforms: As social media platforms continue to undermine the primacy of traditional media; this is an opportunity for traditional and social media publishers to work together to ensure that fake news and rumours make way for credible and fact-checked information.
- Content formats: As media organisations seek to address challenges around audience engagement by exploring different accessible formats, podcasts, for example, look set to remain a popular format. This presents an opportunity for media organisations to leverage different formats to ensure all age-groups are informed.
- Technology: The emergence of artificial intelligence and implications around privacy and democracy will dominate the policy agenda in the coming years with the EU set to publish proposals in 2020. In the interim, this unprecedented emergency presents an opportunity to explore how to leverage its positive potential and ensure readers access new official public health updates.
Only time will reveal the overall impact of COVID-19, and inevitably there will be many lessons to be learned. As the situation evolves and remains uncertain, it is clear a coordinated community-wide response is necessary. The crisis response must also extend to effectively communicating with the public to ensure that all age-groups understand the severity of the situation and pay heed to official advice.