Pandemic Fatigue and a Search for Authenticity Are Reshaping the News

Trust. Credibility. Transparency. Authenticity. All of these play important roles in the relationships people have with their news sources. But by several measures, these relationships are shifting in significant, sometimes contradictory, ways—and several reasons for this shift are psychologically driven.

Audiences want more authenticity in their news programming, and they want more control of their exposure to “stressful” news. Journalists, on the other hand, continue to struggle with ways to effectively use social media platforms to deliver personalized news yet still protect credibility and foster trust. And all these shifts have been exacerbated by pandemic fatigue and the continued economic crisis roiling the news industry, leaving news consumers exhausted and journalists facing burnout.

On the news audience side, trust in news has increased in most markets around the globe, including in the United States, though Americans still report lower trust levels than their international counterparts (Newman, 2021). And they’re increasingly finding their news not through news apps or evening newscasts, but on Google, YouTube, TikTok, Facebook, Snapchat, and Instagram—even though they express less trust in these than national news sites. But these sites provide two things: more content that’s personalized or perceived as authentic, and more ability to control what they see.

“We’ve seen that in a couple of ways, in the transition to social media, and in public relations, even,” said media analyst Tim Wolff of Futuri Media. “For a long time, if you were a really good PR person, your approach was, ‘Say something without really saying anything.’ That was the standard operating procedure, and now that just doesn’t fly anymore. And in the TV world, probably in the last 5 to 10 years, we have really moved away from what we call the voice of God, the promotion voice, or the voice of the station, and really moved to using the anchors themselves, or just real people, because of the same thing. It sounds more authentic and more real. There is so much more transparency now in how everything works, and that is a big part of the authenticity, and the response we get from the younger audience, for sure.” (Wolff, 2021).

The power and peril of social media

Journalists and news executives know this, and they are expected to pour more resources into Instagram, TikTok, and YouTube in the coming year (though less investment in Facebook and Twitter), according to forecasting by the Reuters Institute for the Study of Journalism at Oxford University (Newman, 2022). And yet efforts by journalists to use social media to personally connect with audiences continues to be an ethical minefield, where mixing news announcements and personal “takes” and opinions can quickly erode credibility.

As a result, media outlets around the globe are tightening their social media rules for journalists to avoid confusion and reputational damage. At the BBC, for example, executives have imposed a ban on “virtue signaling” and the use of emojis in social media posts by staff members, since such opinions can blur into the personal and raise questions of bias in the minds of audiences (Newman, 2021).

In addition to these shifts involving authenticity and credibility, audiences and journalists alike are simply exhausted by the relentless march of negative, depressing, or stressful news. For audiences, that means a heightened desire to control what they’re exposed to.

Wolff said this was a surprise finding in his recent study on the future of new audiences and industry revenue trends (Futuri Media/SmithGeigerGroup, 2021). “People told us in the study that they used social media for news not just for the convenience, but for self-care. That was one thing that surprised me more than anything,” Wolff said. “We asked, ‘What are you worried about over a year into this pandemic?’ And it was: economic issues were No. 1; ‘Does the vaccine work?’ and vaccinations were No. 2; and basically No. 3 was, ‘My own mental health and the mental health of a family member.’ We have done research for years, and people would always say, ‘I want more good news, I want more good news.’ But it was different this time. It was, ‘I can’t handle it anymore, I’m much more aware of my own mental health.’ And so people are choosing different formats to get their news if they feel like they could control their mood based on that.

News literacy challenges

Unfortunately, the subsequent limiting of consumption of “depressing” content on topics such as climate change and the pandemic may well exacerbate problems of news literacy and news avoidance (e.g., Gil de Zuñiga et al., 2019, 2020; Song et al., 2020). People who rely on their social media feed for news—called “news finds me” behavior—also tend to presume they know more about the news than they do. They are also less knowledgeable about politics, and more prone to political cynicism and believing misinformation (Chadwick et al., 2018).

These trends have news executives concerned as well. “News editors say it is hard to get mainstream audiences to take notice of a story that moves slowly and can often make audiences feel depressed. In turn, this means it’s hard to make the case to hire the necessary specialist journalists to explain and bring it to life,” according to the recent Reuters Institute report. “Watch for more high-profile examples of journalist burnout as the stresses of the relentless news cycle, remote working, and rising authoritarianism take their toll” (Newman, 2022).

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Will a diet of news delivered on social media platforms result in audiences that are less anxious but also less informed? Will pressures on journalists reshuffle newsroom priorities and bolster credibility? Look for these and other important psychological influences to continue to reshape the news, audience behaviors, and our digital media landscape in the coming years.