Trust in media has continued to see a steady decline for Australia in the era of social media influence and fake news, with Edelman’s annual global Trust Barometer revealing Australia’s key institutions – media, business, government and NGO’s – are amongst the least trusted in the world.
According to the global report, only 31% of people trust the media, meaning Australia has the second lowest trust in media globally, finishing just in front of Turkey where only 30% trust the media.
The media is now the least trusted institution out of business, government, NGO’s and media, according to the survey.
The Edelman Trust Barometer is the public relations firm’s trust and credibility survey, sampling over 33,000 respondents across 28 countries.
Compared to last year, Australia has seen its trust in the media fall by 1%.
Media Futures views this disturbing report as a wake up call for clients and the media to return to a code of common sense and stop using media as plaything. Media is basically a means to communicate with your target audience and tell your story in a plain and simple way.
Shifting the focus of media to be something it's not and using it as a way to misrepresent products brands and services or bend the truth simply wont cut it in this cynical age.
Time to get back to basics and rebuild this once great industry.
If your media policy, media strategy, media planning, media buying and media audit have not addressed Media Trust its time to seek out an independent media specialist.
Media Futures presents industry articles in the constant quest to improve returns on media investment.




Wednesday 30 October 2019
Credit to CEBIT 2019 for arranging this interview
Here's what Stephen had to say.
Q 1. Has social media peaked? Is there too much of it?
I don’t think social media has peaked.There are still a lot of people in the world who don’t have the internet. In many ways social media is useful like electricity and water. Facebook has 2 .6 billion users and there are 7 billion people on the earth so in that sense there is a long way to go. Social media absorbs our attention and has AI to support it.
Anything of too much can be bad and there are limits and there are limits and how it interfaces with your psychology and emotions.Some of that is not understood and we are starting to understand it.
It can be disconnecting and alarming, like the telephone, how can you talk on that contraption for so long and you cant see them. Humans are adaptable.
Is there too much social media..... I don’t think so, but we need the right kind and right quality of social media.
Q 2. With the recent investigations into social companies, has the integrity of the social sector been damaged?
It depends on your perspective as a user, as a social scientist or an advertiser or government.
They all have slightly different perceptions. We have left the age when social media was universally good.
Thats behind us. There is good and bad in the internet and social media.We tend not to understand the bad things and if we do not understand them then we don’t know how to put in mitigations.
I urge companies like Google and Facebook to open up their platforms and ask the experts to come in and ask what good and bad effect is this having on individuals, societies, politics, how opinions get formed. Some are easy to identify and can be removed but it’s the subtle effects those are the ones we need to understand more deeply.
Q 3. How can SME make money from social media if a bidding system exists?
Facebook is pretty good as a platform and they and others have built tools to reach audiences. Before the internet if you were a coffee shop as an example you could not afford to run TV advts or radio advts or place newspaper advts, the audiences were too big and the advts too expensive.
Social media is built for the long tail of small business that traditional media could not build for.
The fact it is a bidding system should not make any difference as its a sustainable business and if a level is not found then prices come down. There is tension in an auction and small business should not be at a disadvantage to big business.
Q 4. How far can social media go? What are its limits?
The key insight from social media is that it taps into a human desire, to be connected to other people and it uses technology to do that.
There is a lot more energy left in social, we have not seen the end of it.
There are 2.5 billion smart phones now,10 years ago there were none. Theres a long way to go.
Its based on what people want to know. Whats going on in my world.The things that are disruptive and exciting are the advancement of data privacy and and consumers will have more control. The things to watch for the future is virtual technology like VR I phones. As an example if my friend is in Bali I can go surfing on VR with that friend.
Copyright Media Futures
Media Futures interviewed Stephen Sheeler at Cebit 2019
Darling Harbour Sydney October 2019
Website mediafutures.com.au




