America doesn’t get its news the way it used to, and many of us are less trusting of network broadcasts or newspapers than our parents or grandparents were.
Veteran broadcaster Deborah Norville shared her insights with a Palm Beach Civic Association audience on Thursday about the diminishing role of traditional journalism in the digital age.
“It’s legacy media versus digital media and I think what we’re seeing is a rebalancing of where eyeballs and attention is going,” Norville told more than 100 people at a luncheon at the Beach Club.
Michael Pucillo, chairman and CEO of the Civic Association, interviewed Norville about the changing media landscape during the nearly hour-long Signature Series program.
Norville is best known for anchoring the syndicated television news magazine Inside Edition. She’s held that chair since 1995, making her the longest-serving anchor in the nation.
The two-time Emmy Award-winning journalist is also a Civic Association director since 2021.
Nearly 60 percent of newspaper jobs have vanished in the last four years, Norville said. Cable television viewership plunged by 14 percent during the same period. Some 50 percent of people 18 to 34 years old – a key demographic for advertisers – now get their news solely through digital media.
“More people are on social media channels than are watching television,” Norville said. “You are seeing ad dollars for newspapers shrink because the audience is smaller.”
When Norville joined Inside Edition in the mid-1990s, the program had a national rating of 13.7 (the percentage of TV households tuned in to the program). That was before the explosion of digital platforms like Facebook, YouTube and Instagram and streaming TV channels such as Netflix and Apple TV+.
“Now, on a great week, our national rating is 2.9,” she said. “The audience has declined.”
Pucillo asked Norville: In an age when people get their news on their cell phones throughout the day, why watch the evening news that night?
“Honestly, I feel that way,” she responded.
In Norville’s view, the evening news programs need to emphasize contextual reporting – the ‘why’s and the implications behind immediate events. But doing that requires more time and money. Spot news is easier and less costly.
The days when families gathered around the television to watch the evening news together are long gone.
“You’re probably not even home at 6:30 at night,” Norville said. “If the evening news made it possible for you to watch it on your phone … they might have a future to look forward to.”
Diminished viewer trust is another reason why legacy journalism has lost ground, she said. In 1976, a Gallop poll found that 72 percent of respondents trusted national media to get the stories right. This year that trust level has fallen to 31 percent.
In 2024, about 100 million Americans – 34 percent of adults – listened to at least one podcast a week. Podcast audiences have a higher level of trust in their hosts than television audiences do in theirs, Norville said.
“If you’re a podcaster, you are new to the game and you’ve got to work for the relationship, you’ve got to be authentic … there is a perception among podcast audiences [toward] their host that we don’t see with the traditional network journalists or even the traditional newspaper journalists with the big national papers,” she said.
If the 1960 presidential election was the “TV election,” when the televised debate between John F. Kennedy and Richard Nixon proved crucial to the outcome, then 2024’s presidential contest was the “podcast election,” Norville said.
“Donald Trump very wisely employed the use of podcasters. He used quite a few, including Joe Rogan (who endorsed Trump) … Donald Trump reached over 26 million ears through podcasts he did.”
By contrast, Kamala Harris did eight podcasts with a total of 6.4 million listeners, Norville said. “She didn’t reach as many people and was late to the game.”
Norville advised readers or viewers who are skeptical of a news report to do their own research: “If it sounds odd, take an extra moment to look it up.” She said it’s also important for journalists to inform readers or viewers of the sources of their information.
Research shows there are 292 counties in the United States that are now “news deserts” – places that have lost their local daily newspapers, and that have little if any local journalism, Norville said. As a result, a lot of locally impactful stories go unreported.
“You’ve got people becoming more partisan … not because they want to be, but because the only information they’re getting is at the national level, which is always colored by the Republican or Democrat umbrella,” she said.
In response to a question from Pucillo, Norville said she believes there is room for non-profit organizations to help fill gaps in local news reporting.
Thursday’s program was sponsored by Northern Trust, which was represented by Senior Wealth Strategist Christopher W. Storkerson, a Civic Association director since 2013.
Norville was the second of three speakers to appear in the Civic Association’s 2024-25 Signature Series. Political analyst Charlie Cook kicked off the series on December 5. The third Signature speaker will be General James L. Jones on March 13 at 10 a.m. at the Beach Club. To RSVP, contact the Civic Association at 561-655-0820 or events@palmbeachcivic.org.
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