Fake news: we hear it, we see it, but how exactly is it affecting the world around us?
Before launching mConnexions Marketing Agency, Owner and Principal Strategist Julie Holton spent more than a decade as an Executive Producer, working in TV Newsrooms across the country.
Julie recently sat down for an interview with Paul Schmidt, of Uno Deuce Multimedia, to dig into her thoughts about this new era of “fake news” and how it has affected the worlds of journalism, social media, and marketing.
VIDEO TRANSCRIPT
Paul: So I know we’re going right into this without you having any coffee are you ready?
Julie: I know, I’m ready.
Paul: How do you feel about fake news, what are your thoughts about fake news?
Julie: Fake news….how sick are we of hearing the phrase “fake news,” right?
Paul: But, I’m asking someone who is actually in the broadcast news industry. What are your thoughts about the term “fake news”?
Julie: It exists, we know it exists! Look what’s happening with Facebook and with all the algorithm changes right now are because of how the elections were messed with. Right? Unfortunately, there are a lot of really hard working journalists out there who get a bad rap because the media in general gets categorized as “the media,” and as if it’s one entity instead of all of the individuals that make it up. Of course there are good and bad journalists, but there are a lot of hardworking people who are facing undue criticism every time someone doesn’t like what they hear and they use the phrase “fake news.”
Paul: You know I have several friends that are broadcast journalists or on-air personalities and so on and so forth and they were just livid when this first came up and I agree it’s what’s funny is that you have other mass media outlets calling other mass media outlets “fake news” and it’s like what is going on here isn’t this a brotherhood of people trying to get the right story? I mean isn’t that what journalism is all about?
Julie: Exactly. Well and I think that you know my heart really went out to a lot of my former colleagues when you know politics aside, when you have the head of the country, or any top-ranking government official, who uses that phrase every time they don’t like something, it becomes really hard to get your job done when you’re facing that criticism.
Paul: And you know you end up fighting an uphill battle fighting against the current and so.
Julie: I’ve worked in news organizations, one in particular that was a very conservative newsroom. The owners were very opinionated in what they wanted cover, and we were unable to use phrases like “global warming” in the newscast. These are situations where you have people’s personal opinions controlling the news, regardless of who is working at that station, and trying to do the right thing and get the right information out to the public. There is still a lot of hardworking people who get in the news industry because they have a passion they really care and they really believe that our democracy wouldn’t exist without freedom of speech and the ability to cover news in the press.
To watch the full video, click here!
