Media Action

Braver Angels Media Action

What Is a Braver Angels Action Group?

Action Groups are formed to pursue issues of public policy on a continuing rather than an ad hoc basis subject to oversight by Braver Angels. Braver Angels' mission includes not only depolarizing, but also engaging those committed to finding common ground to tackle important issues together.

Pilot Project

The Media Action Group, a pilot project of Braver Angels, is a working group of people from diverse perspectives and backgrounds who have engaged in study of the complex issues surrounding news media. Our study has a brought us to conclude that:

Media has capitalized on our tribalistic tendencies, failed to provide the objectivity that ensures trustworthy facts essential for sound decision-making in our society, and kept us in a negative feedback loop."

In other words, media has become a major factor in the increasing polarization of America and to a sharp decline in trust in the media. The objective of the Media Action Group is:

To stimulate an improvement in the reporting of serious news and opinion in our country"

As a pilot project, the Media Action Group is developing the first prototype for hoped-for future groups to be able to hone and refine the process for other Braver Angels.

The pilot group works within guardrails: Taking a position on policy would require the support of 75 percent of Braver Angels. For instance, certain types of actions would take 75% of reds and 75% of blues in an alliance to approve.

Where we are now:

The Media Action group began a series of meetings starting back in October 2020. The six Media Action Group events topics wrapped up in February 2021, with Action Teams beginning to form.

Action Teams Forming

On February 20, 2021, Media Action Group participants began organizing into teams to start planning action to work towards stimulating "an improvement in the reporting of serious news and opinion in our country."

Taking the topics nominated by participants and refined at the Feb. 6 meeting, volunteers decided upon the approach they were most interested in helping with:

1) Braver Angels-based education - spreading the knowledge, tools, and focus of media improvement to other Braver Angels Alliances.

2) Public education - focusing on outreach to other groups, college-age students, and other members of the public

3) Citizen/media feedback and dialogue - team members focus on local news media to set up a mutually respectful dialogue to encourage improvement

4) Accreditation and certification - focuses on examining whether reds and blues can establish criteria that can be used to assess media reliably, with a goal of developing resources (including other organizations working on similar issues)

5) Regulation and legislation - possible areas include finding out about regulation in other countries, find model legislation from other groups. This is not an area in which Braver Angels has chosen to work at this time.

The Media Action Group Process

At a series of events over several months, participants studied what media ought to be, the role it is intended to play in our society, and what the standards are to which journalism and journalists ought to be held. Then there's the role of how media is funded and the pressures of changing business pressures brought about by deregulation, technological changes and the influence of social media which has had disruptive effects in spite of its positive aspects.

Our study also delved into bias, the reasons for it, the many ways it manifests, as well as the spreading of propaganda, misinformation, and fear. Opinion versus news reporting was part of that study. We took a look at the present state of media and what the possibilities for new business models to provide sufficient support for good journalism was also investigated.

As the work moved into a later phase, the development of action plans to begin the work of effecting change in our media, the Winston Churchill quote comes to mind:

Now this is not the end. It is not even the beginning of the end. But it is, perhaps, the end of the beginning."

Explore Braver Angels

You are invited to join Braver Angels in our mission to depolarize the country through working to improve the media. To find out about a Braver Angels Media Action event – or any other upcoming Braver Angels event – you can find one here:

Find an Event

How We Work

Each of the six events leading up to this new phase of decision-making involved educating ourselves and others on the stresses on the media issue and the factors involved in the current state of affairs.

The Media Action Group's events are to:

Create a vision for news delivery that provides the basis for trust and productive problem-solving
Demonstrate the potential for media improvement
Highlight and provide examples of how news delivery can be done accurately and thoroughly
Create public pressure for change

What Should We Be Able to Expect from News Reporting?

The Gap Between What IS and What SHOULD Be

The Five Core Values of Journalism

Responsible Media

Provide the information citizens need to exercise their right and duty to ensure and maintain effective government
Provide the information people need to effectively manage their lives

DEFINITIONS

What Is The Role Of The Media In Society Anyway?

IMPORTANT ROLES:

Provide the information citizens need to exercise their right and duty to ensure and maintain effective, reflective government
Provide the information people need to effectively manage their lives well
Be a watchdog to root out corruption and bad policies; report on government players, power brokers, collateral effects, motivations and end effects
Hold those with power accountable
Ferret out information from multiple points of view allowing citizens to develop a fuller understanding
Provide a basis for community building, that is an understanding of our place and importance in our community and interconnectedness
Provide information from multiple points of view demonstrating that reasonable, well-meaning people can have very different perspectives and opinions

RESPONSIBLE MEDIA SEEKS TO BE:

Beyond the reach of government
Independent of special interests
A mechanism for the open exchange of facts and ideas
A means of keeping the lessons of history alive
Above accepting payment to influence publishing something as news

THE PUBLIC HAS A RIGHT TO EXPECT THE INFORMATION PRODUCED TO BE:

Of sufficient context
If presented as opinion, so noted
Giving subjects of a news story the opportunity to respond
Respectful of individual privacy and dignity
Free from the appearance of advertising of people, places, and events

Ted Koppel Discusses the State of Journalism and Democracy
Amanpour and Company
Youtube, 18 minutes
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L9XhsAP2gkI

Standards of Professionalism Journalism

The primary purpose of journalism is to provide citizens with the information they need to be free and self-governing.

Journalism’s first loyalty is to citizens, loyalty that requires vigilance.

The foundation of journalism is of verification.

Journalists must maintain an independence from those they cover.

Journalists must serve as an independent monitor of power.

Journalism must provide a forum for public criticism and compromise.

Journalism must make the significant interesting and relevant

Bill Kovach & Tom Rosenthiel, The Elements of Journalism; What Newspeople Should Know and the Public Should Expect.

Dive Into the Standards of Journalism