Do Facts Matter?

I attended the annual election of officers for the Society of Professional Journalists’ Phoenix chapter last week and was reminded of how seriously many journalists take their jobs.

It’s always refreshing to be around journalists who truly care about reporting the facts.

We have written about it on several occasions about how important it is for us to utilize trusted sources for our news and why we must be smart consumers of news.  It’s not just here in the United States. David Wills from Media Profile, our Public Relations Global Network partner in Toronto, participated in a podcast with Abbie in which they discussed the topic, “Combatting Fake News and Misinformation.”

With candidates already starting to line up for our next presidential election, this topic will again take center stage.

If you hear someone contrasting news sources and uses the term “mainstream media” it should be a red flag. By definition, if it’s not mainstream, it is not normal.  If it is not mainstream, it is not considered to be generally accepted by all.  If it’s not mainstream, particularly in the case of media outlets, it is likely dominated by opinions rather than facts.

Over the last several years, we have seen where people turn to media outlets to hear information they want to hear – rather than what may actually be factual information.  It’s not a knock on those people, just an observation.

If you’d like assistance navigating the increasingly complicated media world, let us know.