PR's Great Reporting Gap

Media: "Don't bring me no stinking nuance...."


It struck me this last week watching the State of the Union address and later the President's give and take at the annual Republican Retreat, the rather enormous gap between reliable reporting and the communications of the complex issues being reported. We live in a world of nuance, both singularly and plural, but the media does not...particularly the broadcast media. Subtleties, complexities, enigmas...? Media's got no time for them and no budget to cover them...just bring them straight facts based on some kind of convenient authoritative source in the form of a talking head, or short of that they'll settle for a good repeatable short sound bite.


And, it's not always based on which side of the political spectrum the media is suspected to lie. The truth be told, except where openly stated, the largest percentage of the media likes to believe they are "independently centered" because they believe that is not only being "unbiased" but also where the largest audience and therefore the most advertising dollars linger.


This President, not as unlike his predecessors as we'd like to believe, is extremely difficult to define through simple labels like left, right, liberal, conservative, etc. This lack of a simple definition certainly adds to the difficulty of the media reporting on his presidency and his own inability to simplify his narrative to quick sound bites. "Change" and "Yes We Can" were simplistic campaign slogans, not detailed policy statements. Now we're into the real world of governing and legislating where simple is impossible and nuanced compromise reigns...not exactly the forte of the modern media. The instances I cite above are the latest but perhaps clearest examples of why it's still good to hear the long form position from the source, agreeable or not, rather than just its simplified reported interpretation.


We in the PR world unfortunately seldom have the advantage of presenting our clients, unadorned and transparent, direct to their chosen audiences like the President. We must rely on gaining the attention of the media through cleverly worded pitches and releases that pique their interest and turn their budget and time conscious bosses into backers. And remembering that it's the simple, not the complex, the clever sound bite, not the nuanced long form statement, is what is desired and used, we adhere to this formula. The sad, but good thing for us in PR, is that this formula continues to work at least with most modern broadcast outlets where time and cost are at such a premium. The sadder thing is that these same broadcast outlets do so at the behest of their audiences...us.

We’ve lost our ‘why’ in a perfect storm.

So, what are we to make of this last thirty-day news cycle? The American people (indeed the world, considering the impact of both our economy and politics on everything global) are under media assault from the worst economic crisis in three-quarters of a century; and a presidential election that becomes more tumultuous and surreal almost by the hour. And that, more than anything, is what is driving this relentless barrage of changing news stories…the fact that both these stories have no staticticity. They are constantly evolving and changing shape, almost on an hourly basis. It’s a freefall news cycle. There is no time for deep analysis. No time for ‘why’…just ’what.’ We the consumers, the savers, the investors, the makers and the doers, and the voters, let alone the pundits and serious journalists, are left to watch with concern and even fright from the sidelines without the benefit of understanding. And without understanding, there is no sense of control. And without any sense of control, there is panic. Which then, ironically, becomes the third story of this news cycle…but still with more ‘what’ and very little ‘why.’

Something else is contributing to this news cycle of vertigo, the multiplicity and competitiveness of the modern media world itself. This is probably the greatest irony of all. There is no shelter any more from the news…that is, being told ‘what’ is going on and even opinions about the ‘what.’ While the printed page may be shrinking and even disappearing at times in this technology-based world, media sources have vastly expanded through broadcast outlets, the Internet, and now Web 2.0 social networks by the thousands. The choices have become infinite. The noise has become deafening. The competitive “gotcha” factor all-pervasive. It’s often who is first to tell the ‘what’ and not whether is been verified or not. The average connected citizen is bombarded with hundreds of reporting’s (true and untrue) and millions of opinions from all directions.

Thus, a perfect storm of an unpredicted and unprecedented news cycle of ever-tumultuous economics, politics, and panic…coupled with a multitude of sources of quickly assembled information, is hovering over us. The result is really frightening with a whole lot of ‘what’ and not much ‘why’ to give us comfort as the sky darkens.

However, being the optimist I am as well as old enough to know that news cycles are just that, cyclical, I recognize this time will indeed pass. And while we cannot necessarily alter events out of our immediate control, we can work toward better and more accurate, in-depth communications even as we expand our means of communicating. Sometimes less can be more; and less ‘what’ and more ‘why’ and even ‘why not’ can ease our journey through a crazed news cycle reporting on a crazed time.