Fixing the news | Coleen Christie | TEDxVancouver

This talk was given at a local TEDx event, produced independently of the TED Conferences.

Coleen Christie is using the power of television to try to make the world a better place. For over a decade, she has anchored a nightly television news broadcast, empowering viewers with information and connecting them to issues that matter and to each other. Coleen brings a life of journalistic experience from behind the camera to the stage to shed light on the consumption of media in the Information Age.

My biography on my Twitter page says

I am a skeptic and an optimist.

I believe in science,
and infinite possibilities

and that kind of sums up what I am going
to be talking about today.

What a world we could live in

if we were a truly informed society.

A society that, by and large,
understood every facet

of the social, political, environmental,
economic realities that we face everyday.

Well, a news culture often indicates

its potential for being truly informed.

Hi, my name is Coleen Christie.

I am a news anchor,
a broadcast journalist, if you will,

and I am a little hesitant to say that
because I recently found out

that broadcast journalists rank number six
on the list of most despised professions.

(Laughter)

We are just above tax auditors.

That's right,

most people like tax auditors
better than broadcast journalists.

(Laughter)

It sort of feels like when Sally Field
made her Oscar acceptance speech,

but it is the opposite;
you hate me, you really hate me.

(Laughter)

Not me personally,
give me a few minutes, you might.

(Laughter)

But at least we are doing better
than lawyers, they are at number three.

That gives me hope.

(Laughter)

I anchor for CTV Vancouver, an affiliate
of the number one network in Canada.

I got my start in news
in a rather unusual way.

I started in marketing and promotion
so it gives me a unique perspective,

on the business of news;
you see, I have always understood

that news is a product
that needs to be sold.

But it is a really important product.

I grew up in a home
where news was important.

My mother would pour
over the morning newspaper

on the days that she was not working.

She knew all of the issues,
all of the players,

and she had a grade-8 education.

As a family, we would watch
the nightly newscast together,

and we actually paid attention.

I think that because my parents
came from poverty,

they were very aware of the importance
of informing us and educating us.

Conversations over the dinner table
were often political, often heated.

"Please pass the gravy, I cannot believe
you are such a socialist!

Would you like more potatoes?"
That sort of thing.

(Laughter)

Yeah, back then, our choices
for news sources

were a little more limited
than they are now, that is for sure,

but wherever we got our news,

we pretty much trusted that it would be
trustworthy and dependable.

Boy! Things have changed, haven't they?

In this modern news-age,
information is power,

and never has our ability to leverage
that power been more at risk.

In the last ten years, there has been
a remarkable change

in our news consumption habits.

Due, in large part,
to the explosion of digital media.

That explosion has created
more competition,

and it has changed our legacy platforms,
being newspapers and televisions,

and it has actually changed
what we consider "newsworthy" to be.

In a recent survey

- you might find this interesting -

nearly 90% of North Americans said
they were "hungry for their daily news",

but get this;

nearly 50% of them said
they could not trust it.

Trust is an issue,

and I think part of that trust issue is
wrapped up in our sense of bias in news.

Yes. of course, with polarized news
organizations like Fox News on the right,

and MSNBC on the left,
it is absolutely clear that bias exists,

but as a journalist on the inside,

I think it is an oversimplification
to say that all media is biased.

In fact, I propose to you today

that the problem
with media is not bias at all.

The problem with news today is you.

The question I put to you
is not which news you can trust,

but can you trust yourself
to consume it wisely?

News, in essence, is factual storytelling.

Everyday, journalists attempt
to share information through stories.

But let's make something
very clear from the get-go.

There are essentially
two kinds of sources for news.

There is mainstream credible news,
and then there is everything else,

and based on your lack of trust,

the line between the two must seem
pretty blurry to you.

Now of course there are exceptions.
There are always exceptions.

The simplest definition of "credible news"

is: information reported after
a rigorous series of checks and balances

to ensure accuracy and fairness.

Most people consume their news everyday

without knowing that,
or even thinking about it

and I think it is important
we understand the process.

So for example, in television, news ideas
come from anywhere and everywhere.

It is our assignment editors job
to assemble those ideas

and create a potential list
of the stories that we will cover.

The next step in the process
might surprise you.

We actually debate and discuss
each one of those stories' ideas.

A group of highly experienced, trained,

knowledgeable, diverse individuals,

practically anybody in our news room
who wants to participate,

weighs the news value merits
of each story.

Is it something our audience wants?
Is it something our audience needs?

Next, we assign stories to our reporters,
our "boots on the ground".

They go out and they find facts,
and they assemble those facts,

and they provide context for the story.

Yes, some stories are more complex
than others, but generally speaking,

if, at the end of the day,

a new story does not have
enough news value,

or if it does not pass the 'sniff test',
it does not make it to air.

That is how most news rooms
throughout the world work.

For the most part, that process works.

The one thing we cannot escape

is the perception of bias.

We fight very hard to avoid it,
but we cannot, somehow,

avoid the perception of bias
in our reporting.

Let me give you an example.

We are accused of two things
whenever we cover an election campaign.

We are accused

of simultaneously supporting the incumbent
and supporting the challenger.

(Laughter)

It never fails. It never fails,
and of course, we are not doing either.

You see, mainstream news
has no political agenda.

"What?" you say.

It is absolutely true.

Mainstream news has no political agenda.

Yes, there is right-wing
conservative news, and yes,

there is its counter-balance on the left,

but I am talking about mainstream media.

For those of us who work in the middle,

the very notion of partisan conspiracies

is absolutely ridiculous.

Except for that lunar landing,
that was a total fake, never happened.

(Laughter)

Now, of course, that is not the case

with organizations
which use narrative journalism

to promote a particular ideology,
a political perspective.

No, and they are harder to spot these days

with the proliferation
of online news sources

that do not use
journalistic checks and balances

and so easily can be passed
off as legitimate.

And mistakes that can be perceived
as bias, can be made,

but I believe they are less intentional
than you might think.

And when those mistakes are made,

most credible media outlets
adhere to their own self-discipline.

The news media has been correcting errors
along the way for more than 100 years

and whether to our general
satisfaction or not,

it has to be acknowledged
that it certainly does happen.

Discipline is big part of the job,

but it is not exactly the toughest part
of the job for me personally.

In case you did not get this already,
when I go to work in the morning,

I do not have to worry
about being infected,

shot, kidnapped, tortured,
raped, or executed

like some of my colleagues do.

Shout-out to the colleagues in the field
who risk their lives every day.

(Applause)

Yeah, it is a calling, it is a calling.

No, I got it pretty good,

considering tough day at the office
for me might be a bad hair day

(Laughter)

but it is not tough for me, it is tough
for you because you have to look at it.

See how that works?

The hardest part of my job
is keeping my mouth shut.

I am not talking about afternoon meetings

where my colleagues would love it
if I kept my mouth shut.

No, I am talking about
when I am presenting facts,

I cannot telegraph my own
personal opinions on divisive matters.

I cannot let that through.

I cannot risk it.

As a communicator, it is my job
to help you understand the story,

it is not my job
to tell you what to think.

I cannot risk it, we cannot risk it.

You see the truth is,

mainstream media
cannot afford to take sides.

I use the word "afford" on purpose.

Bias is bad for business.

Let me show you
how the money works on that,

we will just follow the money.

Our democratic society needs

independet news
to keep us informed and free.

And news, the news industry,
needs consumers to survive.

So in television, consumers are viewers.

The more viewers, the higher the ratings,

the higher the ratings,
the more ad revenues.

Ad revenues maintain operating budgets,

operating budgets pay for journalists
to gather information to keep us free.

That is how it works.

Any blatant bias on our part
could potentially alienate

vast numbers of our viewers.

That is a bad idea.

Bias is just bad business
in the news business.

Some recent studies have revealed
some interesting statistics

on our consumption habits.

I should note that most of us
still consume our news from television.

But we are branching out.

A majority of North Americans now say
they consume news on multiple platforms.

Still, nearly 90% of us
are consuming that news

from one single news organization.

So let me tell you what that looks like,
I will paint a picture for you.

You are at home,
you have got the TV on to CNN,

you have the tablet open to CNN's webpage,

you are following CNN's breaking news
on your Twitter feed on your phone,

and you have no social life.

(Laughter)

Myopic?

Yeah, perhaps.

Unless you have got a thing
for Wolf Blitzer. Hey, no judgment.

(Laughter)

Here is the ironic part though.

In a survey done this year,

North Americans said they feel
more informed than ever before.

Well of course we feel more informed,
it feels like we are getting more news,

but what we are getting
is more of the same news.

It is coming at us faster and faster
and we know statistically,

that our attention spans
are getting shorter and shorter.

That is changing the kind
of news we want to consume.

Trying to keep your attention
has never been harder.

In television the average news story
is less than two minutes long.

Sometimes as short as 20 seconds.

Think about that.

Wow.

Boredom is your bias,

and if we do not keep you engaged,
you are going to leave.

We do not want you to leave.

In television, we spend all day gathering
quality information that you can trust,

even though 50% of you do not trust it.

(Laughter)

Your information dinner is served,
and we throw in dessert too.

Oh yeah, trending videos.

You know, the bizarre,
the wacky, the funny.

They make it into
most major newscasts now,

and they are among the top rated
segments of those newscasts.

It is true. It is true. Yeah.

A caution; we are very aware
of trivializing news,

and we are very cautious not to.

But we are competing with Jon Stewart
for goodness' sake.

(Laughter)

We are dancing as fast as we can
to keep you entertained and informed

so that you will stick around.

But you say, "Hey, digital news gives me
what I want when I want it,"

and that is absolutely true, scarily so.

Your online habits are watched,
followed, and fed.

With each click of the mouse,

you leave a digital breadcrumb trail
so that you can be fed more of the same.

And social media is contributing
to your bias, it really is.

Since 2009,

traffic to social media news sites
has gone up by 60%.

A full 70% of people surveyed
recently in North America

said they used social media
as a news source.

I got nothing bad to say
about social media, I like it.

Hey, Twitter is a fantastic tool

for communicating
and for delivering breaking news.

But if you are using social media
as your primary news source,

you have got to be cautious
- because think about it -

It is your neighbor or the person
who works next to you,

who likes cat videos,
they are your news director.

(Laughter)

And you know what?

Your editorial team on Facebook

is only as good
as your friends on Facebook.

So true.

And on Twitter, there is no news director.
No, there really is not.

# Competitive. #Sensational.
#KimKardashian.

(Laughter)

I am only throwing in Kim Kardashian

because I am hoping
that when somebody googles her name,

this TED talk comes up.

(Laughter)

# Shameless.

You are the subjective news curator
of your world, and we know statistically

that you like to get news
from people who think like you do.

It is a fact.

And on top of that,
being well-informed online

requires more effort
and more discipline on your part.

You are only going to click on the things
that look appealing to you, right?

Think about it, it is
kind of like going to a buffet.

You are not going to get two salads.

(Laughter)

But you know, you see those desserts
sitting there, they look pretty good.

Nobody is watching.

Take two. What the heck?

We are human.

We like pie.

Our personal preferences feed our biases,

and our personal content curation
supports them.

By definition and design, digital media
gives us more of what we already like.

You create your own
information playlist, if you will.

It is kind of like, I do not know,
like the Songza of news.

The system feeds you
more of what you want.

It feels good, but how are you ever going
to be exposed to something new?

How are you going to see
a different perspective?

If you keep listening to 8 on the 80s,

how are you going to hear
new music for goodness sake?

Come on. (Laughter)

Whether we realize it or not,

our subconscious bias is driving
our news consumption habits,

and it is keeping us less informed
than ever before.

You know what? We know what happens.

When our trust in media
is at an all-time low,

it means that our appetite

to seek out new and more varied
variety of news sources diminishes,

and our biases are strengthened.

We see that every day.

You get camps over here,
you have got another camp over here.

These guys are not listening
to these guys.

They do not want to; there is no trust.

It is all ego-driven, fear-based,

heels dug-in, no progress.

We are behaving like children except
if we were children we would be punished,

but in this sense, the people
who are behaving this way,

they get their own TV shows

or their own constituents,
as the case may be.

As artist and activist Ruben Blades
so eloquently put it,

"We risk becoming

the best informed society
that ever died of ignorance."

(Applause)

So how do we achieve the promise
of being a truly informed society

when our own personal biases
keep us locked in a feedback loop,

giving us more and more of the same?

What would happen if, for example,

we chose a second or third news source

outside of our normal consumption habits?

Well more news diversity
would make us better informed,

would certainly make us sound smarter,

that comes in handy at weddings,
Bar Mitzvahs, TED conferences,

(Laughter)

but sounding smart is not the goal.

That is not what this is all about.

This is about freedom.

And the news media
is the guardian of our freedom.

We hold authority to account,
you hold us to account.

You are free to choose
whatever news source you like,

but if you are choosing more
of the same, is that freedom?

Getting news that reinforces
your own beliefs feels good,

but it is a false sense of security

and one that does not promote
greater growth or deeper understanding.

It certainly does not challenge
us to challenge our own views.

So how do we know if we are getting
enough variety in our news diet?

Well, if everything you are consuming
makes you feel great,

chances are you need
to mix it up a little bit.

And you know what?
The news media needs to do its bit too.

We need to make news more relevant,
particularly my branch of the news.

We need to help people understand

why a story is important,
and how it affects them.

Anybody can collect facts.

We need to provide context.

The old notion of, "Eat it, it's good
for you!" just does not work anymore

when one click away
there is something more tantalizing.

If we lose you, we lose,

and then we all lose.

As iconic broadcast journalist
Charlie Rose so beautifully put it,

"We learn from each other,
even when we disagree,

especially when we disagree."

The more we strengthen

the virtues of tolerance,
diversity, and understanding,

we will have a bulwark
against the hatred and extremism

that has wreaked
so much havoc in this world.

So I implore you, battle your biases.

Empower yourself with more diverse news.

And maybe, just maybe,
we will have an informed society,

a truly informed society,
and enter a new age of enlightenment.

Thank you.

(Applause)