Posted on 10/22/2017 10:38:31 AM PDT by 2ndDivisionVet
Last week I returned from a big journalism conference, and it cemented a hunch I’ve been ruminating on for a little while now: A lot of the chatter in the hallways was about data suggesting that readers have started paying less attention to the quick-churn news cycle. Web traffic to news sites appears to have declined across the board from the spikes after Trump was elected.
That’s a problem for a lot of an industry that derives most of its revenue from the ad impressions that load every time you click on a story, whether or not you end up actually reading it.
But it might also be good news—if it means that as a society, we’re ready to engage with the news in a different, less frantic way.
Before I unpack that, though, I’ll level with you: I also suspect fatigue is a big reason we’re behind on our fall pledge drive. We need to pick up the pace to make our $200,000 budget, so even if—especially if—you’re feeling like it’s just too much right now, I hope you’ll keep reading and that you’ll support Mother Jones’ journalism with a tax-deductible donation today.
Now let’s dig in on the question of fatigue, because it’s a real concern—and our team isn’t immune from it either. From Charlottesville, devastating hurricanes, and the mass shooting in Las Vegas to attempts to kick millions off of their insurance or reversals on DACA (to name just a few—travel bans! North Korea! Iran!), it’s been a tough run.
So as counterintuitive as it seems, let’s think back to a moment we all remember very precisely: The night of November 8, 2016. That moment when it became clear that Donald Trump would be our next president.
People dealt with that night a lot of different ways, but I’ve heard one thing from almost everyone I know: We all felt our compass very intensely that night. We felt it in our bones. We were really connected to our values, and we knew that our values demanded that we pick up our tools and start hammering away at what seemed like the daunting task of advancing democracy, justice, and progress.
Here’s how a former tech executive put it to me at an event recently: “I realized that night that I couldn’t outsource participation. I couldn’t leave democracy to other people.”
As people thought about what democracy means to them, many of them found their way to journalism—including Mother Jones. We saw tens of thousands of new subscribers and supporters sign up, and we took that as a mandate: to reconfigure our priorities, to double down on the work that is most critical now, to be worthy of the trust that our audience—you!—places in us.
Nine months in, if we feel a little overwhelmed, it’s for good reason: They want us to be. The more they get us thinking it’s impossible to keep up, the less we can pull back and keep eyes on our compass. So whenever I battle the fatigue that is inescapable at times like this, I try to think back to that moment, when we all knew it would be a long slog, and we couldn’t afford to feel hopeless. (You can let me know how you’re feeling and hear from fellow readers at the end of this article.)
And there’s one other thing we realized at that moment: We could no longer keep going the way we were. That’s where I come back to the changing patterns in news consumption. Maybe it’s a good thing that we’re no longer frantically clicking on every outrage-inducing link in our Facebook feed. Lots of you have told us that you are unplugging a bit—not from the issues, but from the blur of headlines. That you are taking the time to read more deeply, and to connect with others for real (yes, even face to face) conversations.
And it turns out that by doing this, you may be fighting the propagandists in the most effective way there is. Last year, the nonpartisan research organization RAND released a study of messaging techniques used by Kremlin-controlled media, known as the “Firehose of Falsehood.” Here are their two main takeaways: Russian propagandists utilize “high numbers of channels and messages, along with “a shameless willingness to disseminate partial truths or outright fictions” that “entertains, confuses, and overwhelms the audience.”
Sound familiar? It’s very similar to what we’ve been seeing from Trump and his allies in the last year and a half.
But the propagandists’ worst nightmare is for the audience—us—to hold on to our grounding. The study concluded that the best way to counter deception and media manipulation is getting ahead of the lies with accurate information, and exposing the propaganda as such—because fighting it case by case, story by story, is a daunting, and losing battle.
It’s a tall order, and I won’t pretend we can do it on our own, but Mother Jones—and most journalism—exists to make it harder for the firehose of falsehood to work. If that’s what you want, I hope you’ll join us with a tax-deductible donation to help us reach $200,000 so we can keep digging up facts and get them to millions of readers for free. We only have two weeks left in our pledge drive, and we still need to raise about $100,000 to stay on track.
We can’t let Trump-era politics become the new normal. But we also can’t respond to every development as a brand new, hair-on-fire crisis. By recognizing the playbook, and refusing to let it work you up or beat you down, we can hold on to the strength and wit we’re going to need for the road ahead. That’s what we’re committed to—and I hope you’re with us.
I’d love to hear your thoughts on Trump fatigue, because when I say being a reader-supported nonprofit means we answer only to you, that’s not empty rhetoric. We not only need to double down on fact-finding reporting during times like these, we also need to listen and learn from you.
Suggested Therapy:
They can always kill themselves.
Buddy, you want my feedback? We are sick of your whining and sniveling. We don’t bother to read your frothing screed. It makes you look like idiots.
I hope they are.
I wake up every day hoping for something next!
Great!
Start with the bogus uranium deal put together by Russia, Clinton and Obama.
Well, stop wrestling and go into a coma then, lefties. Let the US and the world be at peace for once.
I’m suffering from The Left Destroying Everything They Touch fatigue.
"Before I unpack that, though, I’ll level with you: I also suspect fatigue is a big reason we’re behind on our fall pledge drive. We need to pick up the pace to make our $200,000 budget, so even if—especially if—you’re feeling like it’s just too much right now, I hope you’ll keep reading and that you’ll support Mother Jones’ journalism with a tax-deductible donation today. son for this article: "
Ditto that
The five stages:
1) denial - “not my president”
2) anger - all the angry Trump stories and riots
3) bargaining - Maybe if we do this and that we can still get HilLiARy
4) depression - “Sick of Trump”,”Trump Fatigue” <— I think we are here
5) acceptance
Suggestion to those mofo jones aficionados: Go home, draw a nice warm bath, put on your favorite barbara streisand, pour yourself a large glass of Chianti, and open a vein. you’ll feeeeeeeel better in no time.
Mother Jones is one case where I could support post-birth abortion.
I might have suffered fatigue at this point with the presidency of some in the past, but Trump keeps doing what he said he’d do, and I love it every day.
” Here are their two main takeaways: Democrat propagandists utilize “high numbers of channels and messages, along with “a shameless willingness to disseminate partial truths or outright fictions” that “entertains, confuses, and overwhelms the audience.”
Fixed it...
Trump Fatigue is actually the growing revelation in Progs that he is right and all the celebrities, sports figures, politicians, and college professors are wrong—that America can be great again and that means we need to put America first—not alone, just first.
It is the voice in your gut that tells you to stop screaming and start listening.
The study concluded that the best way to counter deception and media manipulation is getting ahead of the lies with accurate information, and exposing the propaganda
Suck it up buttercups!
Still not tired of winning.
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