The banquet room at Mijares restaurant was packed for our spring fundraiser luncheon. Our speaker was Val Zavala, reflecting on her 30 years in broadcast television. Her lively presentation focused on The Changing Media Landscape.

In the early days of television there were three national networks, and though they had a limited broadcast range, their stable journalists gave Americans a common understanding of the news. With the advent of cable TV, channels presenting various viewpoints multiplied rapidly. Today, with the addition of satellite TV and social media, there are now hundreds if not thousands of news sources committed to different perspectives. Americans therefore lack a common perspective on the day’s national issues.

As their primary news source, 57% of Americans use TV; 28% use digital media, 25% radio, and 20% print newspapers. The shrinking role of newspapers is caused primarily by loss of advertising income. The Los Angeles Times had 1,200 reporters in 2001 but that number has shrunk to 400 reporters in 2018.

The issue of “fake news” in today’s media landscape is not new: false stories in the political arena have been around virtually since print media began. However, fake news is growing in technical sophistication, to the point that public figures can appear to be speaking words that they have never said.

Zavala noted that viewers with more extreme views on the left or right are more likely to consume fake news that supports their preconceptions. Research has shown that in the 2016 election Trump voters were already convinced of their candidate, but swing voters were not swayed by misleading news.

She said that one way to avoid being sucked into extreme news sources is to avoid clicking “Like” on Facebook stories. “Likes” sometimes result in being enrolled in a service that you didn’t intend. Regarding the use of members’ data by Facebook advertisers, the company is adding fact checkers to review possible fake news sources. Viewers can search FactCheck.org, Politifact, or Snopes to verify whether a given story is true or false.

Thanks, Val, for a timely and interesting talk on this important issue!