I know you understand the idea of Donald Trump and the news media. Obviously, the circus has begun. But you may be wondering what that has to do with my University of Phoenix students. I think they are all related. And they have broader implications.
Student response sad and frightening
I teach four different communication classes for UOPx, and in most of them the news media come up from time to time, sometimes purposely by me and others by the discussion questions built into the classes. What I learn saddens and frightens me.
News via social media
These college students generally consume little news media and trust very little of what they read and hear. They feel the media are filled with bias. And the negative nature of much of the news brings them down. So they don’t consume. They get tidbits here and there from their social media feeds by and large. And most say they do their own research online into story topics that interest them.
Older demographic
University of Phoenix students are not, for the most part, 18 to 21 year olds. Most are young professionals who didn’t get degrees earlier in life but see the need to now for advancement in their careers. Occasionally I have people of retirement age who are going to college to pursue a lifelong dream of getting that diploma.
Impact on voting
I begin to wonder why the big turnoff and how we can expect a largely uninformed electorate to make good decisions at the ballot box. How motivated will they even be to go to the polls, especially when many states are trying to make voting harder?
Here comes Trump
And that brings me to Donald Trump and the media. I think many now realize that Trump garnered more than his share of attention in his first go-around at running for president. He was surprising and unique, a TV game-show host and billionaire real estate tycoon who said and did surprising things. Surprising things make news. Keeping your name in the news, even when the news is seen as negative by some, makes you well known. And some voters, enough voters, didn’t see the news about Trump as being so negative. He beat Hillary Clinton in the Electoral College count. We had him for four years where his outlandish ways kept him in the news to the delight of Trump and his followers.
Trump rhetoric divides
His rhetoric helped sharply divide the country. But because he was bizarre (my word), he stayed in the news. And despite his loss to Joe Biden, there he remains, even more-so now that he’s running again. And perhaps, just perhaps, younger educated people are not turning to trusted and vetted news sources to get at the truth. Perhaps those trusted and vetted news sources are being played by Trump.
More responsible coverage
Harvard Professor Thomas Patterson, in a widely published commentary piece in early November, suggested more responsible ways the press might cover Trump. He urges them not to play into his hand. He suggests racing to air his latest outrage only gives him disproportionate coverage at the expense of more worthy news.
Don’t play up lies
Patterson says by all means call out his lies. But don’t dwell on them. And don’t play up his social media rantings. A study found that only about 1 percent of his Twitter followers saw a tweet directly from him while he was president. Most Americans heard of the tweets through news coverage.
Avoid manipulation
Trump is a master at manipulating the agenda. So Patterson suggests not taking advantage of an offer of a Trump interview unless the reporter has a clear purpose and follows it through.
Provide context
He urges the media to provide context for why a particular story is important. The media should say why it is being told the way it is. He also urges that the media not lump all Trump loyalists together. Those who stormed the Capitol on January 6 do not represent all Trump voters. To make broad generalizations only deepens Trump supporters’ distrust of the media.
Toward responsible media
I see it already starting with so much emphasis on his Thanksgiving weekend dinner guests at Mar-a-Lago. Let’s hope it dies quickly. Let’s hope the 2024 elections see a return of readers and viewers to well-edited and vetted media that are covering the election straight and fairly. And let’s hope more readers and viewers–even some of my UOP students–return to partake.