Time to rededicate myself to sadness
Media statistic of the week
This Reuters Institute fact sheet analyzes the percentage of people of color in top editorial positions in a strategic sample of 100 major online and offline news outlets in five different markets across four continents: Brazil, Germany, South Africa, the United Kingdom (UK), and the United States (US).
What did they find? Here’s one of the bigger talking points: “Overall, 23% of the 81 top editors across the 100 brands covered are people of color, despite the fact that, on average, 44% of the general population across all five countries are people of color.”
This past week in the media industry
Negative words in headlines generate more clicks
Does this surprise anyone, really?
“Negative words in news headlines generate more clicks — but sad words are more effective than angry or scary ones” reads the headline of this piece by Joshua Benton for Nieman Lab.
Benton dives into the results of a new study published in the journal Nature Human Behavio(u)r.
The gist of the study: “So: Add a negative word to your headline — words like harm, heartbroken, ugly, troubling, angry — and get 2.3% more clicks, on average. And adding a positive word — like benefit, laughed, pretty, favorite, kind — does the opposite and keeps people from clicking.”
“News publishers, as rational economic actors, want to maximize the audience for everything they do, and there’s something about the negative lens on reality that draws eyeballs to copy,” tweets Jeremy Berke.
“Time to rededicate myself to sadness,” adds Andrew Beaujon.
“You should read this heartbreaking, ugly, troubling story which is not beneficial, pretty, favorite or kind,” tweets Ann Marie Lipinski.
Possible TikTok ban in the United States
The discourse around a possible TikTok ban in the United States has heated up.
Later this week, TikTok CEO Shou Zi Chew will testify before the House Energy and Commerce Committee. Ahead of the meeting, TikTok confirmed that it now has 150 million monthly active users in the United States, up from 100 million it said it had in 2020, according to Reuters’
“The app faces growing pressure in Washington including calls to ban the app by many in Congress who fear its U.S. user data could fall into the hands of China's government,” writes Shepardson.
TikTok is attempting to reassure advertisers that the app will not be banned, reports Patience Haggin and Suzanne Vranica for The Wall Street Journal.
“In a Friday email to an ad agency that had inquired about the uncertain situation, TikTok discussed the steps it has taken to secure user data, saying, ‘We are confident that we are on a path to fully satisfy all reasonable U.S. national security concerns,’” they write.
And it’s not just in the United States. “More than a dozen countries around the world have introduced full, partial or public sector bans on TikTok amid heightened national security concerns,” reports Sara Fischer for Axios.
Fox viewers less trusting of network
Variety’s Andrew Wallenstein and Gavin Bridge detail the results of a new survey that reveals more than a fifth of Fox News Channel viewers are less trusting of the cable network in the wake of publicly disclosed text messages and emails from Fox executives and on-air personalities.
Here’s more:
“In addition, 13% of Fox News viewers no longer believe the 2020 presidential election was stolen after reading communications in which the network’s stars, including Tucker Carlson and Sean Hannity, were making allegations on TV regarding voter fraud that was inconsistent with what they were saying privately.
The survey was fielded online March 10-12, 2023, to 1,524 respondents just days after the latest batch of texts, emails and depositions were released in connection with a $1.6 billion defamation lawsuit filed against Fox News by Dominion Voting Systems.”
“Well this is delicious,” tweets Kaz Weida.
Meanwhile, “Fox News is seeking a temporary restraining order against a senior producer named in Dominion Voting Systems' defamation lawsuit against the network,” reports Axios’ Rebecca Falconer.
A few more
From the Muck Rack team
One in five journalists have switched jobs or made a career change due to the economy, according to new survey results from our sixth annual State of Journalism report, which surveyed more than 2,200 journalists to understand the current state of journalism and the future of the industry. It also found layoffs and furloughs have increased the workload for about 20% of journalists.