Americans’ attitudes about the news media are increasingly divided along partisan lines, with claims that we have entered a "post-fact" era of diminished trust in the role and capacity of the media to foster and sustain a healthy democratic society.

The Philanthropy Workshop's "Perspectives from the Field: Local, National and Global" brought together a network of philanthropists with practitioners working on this issue at a local, national, and global level.

Vivian Schiller, a media and technology executive with over 25 years of experience and the former Global Chair of News at Twitter and President and CEO of NPR provided us with a thorough but concise synopsis of some of the key factors influencing the trends in media we see today. One significant recent change has been the shift from news publishers to social media platforms as the main source of information.

As Schiller noted, this has given more power to social media algorithms to filter the content we see.

This shift, paired with an increasing distrust of news outlets, has created an environment in which ‘fake news’—misleading, false, manipulated, or fabricated content—can thrive.

 

The rise of fake news has only added to the list of challenges currently facing the media, including failing business models and expanding news deserts.

In this frenetic media landscape, Tim Olson, Chief Digital Officer for KQED—Public Media for Northern California, mentioned an increasing interest in ‘calm news’ from public media consumers and described KQED’s "reach plus depth" strategy that makes engagement central to their definition of success.

Olson expressed a desire to be "rich and relevant and specific in people’s lives" and noted that, even through a time of major media change, KQED has experienced growth and stability from public media’s long-tested membership and public engagement model.

Read the full article about fake news and the role of philanthropy at tpw.org.