Audiences flee from the news / Column The Other Side – Movies and TV – Culture

The audiences are the message. We create and inform media and digitally for them. That is why it is necessary to listen to them and the Reuters 2023 digital report brings us news about how we are as audiences.

Consumption of traditional media, such as television and print, continues to decline in most markets. And those interested in the news went from 63 percent in 2017 to 48 percent.

Trust in the news is only for four out of ten people. 36 percent of people avoid them.

The concept of information on platforms like TikTok, Instagram and Snapchat is about the trends of celebrities, influencers and digital personalities. They do not follow journalists.

Journalists live on Facebook and Twitter.

People prefer to be informed by algorithms than by journalists.
Digital participation is smoke, only 22 percent participate actively. And men, educated and politically active, participate much more.

(You may want to read: ELTIEMPO.COM, the most consulted digital media in Colombia: Reuters Institute)

Most online users still prefer to read the news rather than watch or listen to it.

The journalistic podcast. 34 percent access a podcast per month and 12 percent consume some information program.

In the case of Colombia, it can be seen that online news consumption is led by ELTIEMPO.com, with 29 percent.; it is followed by Caracol Noticias, 23 percent; Pulzo, Semana and El Espectador. Strong data is that 41 percent avoid the news and say that they do so because there is an excess of politics and crime. 14 percent of those surveyed say they pay.

Faced with this data landscape, traditional media and journalists should critically look at ourselves and see why we fail to attract audiences and try to make ourselves more necessary, useful and interesting for people.

Some things that we could do maybe is… bring down the politicians and our desire to create and burn with polarization; try to expand, broaden and diversify the information agenda in order to win over young people and women; abandon the ego-Twitter fights and dedicate ourselves to making reports with data, narrative and criteria in our media; flee from click for click and create communities of meaning and conversation; report differently for each digital species (avoid cloning).

(You may be interested in: ‘Romina’ and excessive violence / The other side)

And in all cases, as they said at the excellent Gabo 2023 Festival that just ended, not to hunt audiences but to generate human interactions, provide conversations, create communities and, above all, be useful for people’s needs. For now we are only looking to hunt them down to make them pay.

An issue to reconsider is what the information is about. Since it’s a thing for educated adults (there maybe it’s politicians); another for the people (where there are specific needs such as mobility, health, food, education and partying); young people (pop tendencies but which lead them to debate machismo, sexism, racism…); women (care, harassment…) and diversities. It is not about going to show business trends, but about taking on more diverse perspectives to interpret and narrate.

The other side, column by Ómar Rincón, television critic. Email: orincon61@hotmail.com

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