Trust Issues: Why Audiences And Brands Are Turning to Independent Media

What marketers can learn from audiences seeking authenticity and trust outside traditional news channels

It seems trust in businesses surpasses governments these days. The 2024 Edelman report highlights that businesses have surpassed governments as a more reliable source of trust, with the tech sector among the top three industries referenced. Peers, which may include unqualified individuals, are now perceived as equally trustworthy as scientists.

For marketing and advertising professionals, this shift underscores the rising influence of peer recommendations and social proof in shaping public trust, critical for brand strategy, influencer marketing, and campaign targeting.

Reuters’ executive summary of their 2024 Digital News Media report underscores concerns about the trustworthiness of online content, with platforms like X and TikTok ranked amongst the least trusted social channels.

While overall trust in news media has remained stable over the past year, it remains four points lower than during the height of the coronavirus pandemic.
Media and content strategists could note the heightened scepticism around certain platforms may directly impact where brand campaigns are placed and how the audience targeting is structured.

Australia, along with AUKUS partner countries the UK and USA, falls within a moderate band where 16-20% of the population distrusts news overall.
This moderate distrust suggests that brands can still leverage mainstream media placements, but messaging may place heightened consideration to authenticity and credibility signals in order to build trust.

Joining the dots, this points to a growing scepticism of legacy media overall, often attributed to at times obvious biases. As a result, we’re witnessing a noticeable swing toward independent media channels, both emerging and established. Given such channels represent both opportunity and risk, an increased consideration towards editorial standards, facts, also matter.

Take Meidas Touch Network: a left-leaning platform formed by three brothers in 2020, filmed in living rooms. MTN has showed consistent periods of outpacing right-leaning Fox News, a $14 billion company, on YouTube view ratings regularly since October 2024.

Political preferences aside, Meidas Touch, grounded in legal objectivity, frequently ‘brings the receipts,’ empowering audiences to access and assess facts, not fiction. This transparent approach, shared by many independent channels, is likely one reason why audiences continue to flock to them.

The growth of independent channels demonstrates that smaller media players can rival established networks, a key consideration for agencies also evaluating platforms for content placement or partnerships.

However, given many of these growing channels often operate outside traditional journalistic standards, objective filtering of their content becomes essential.

Alex Edmans, in his London Business School TEDx talk, opens with a classic example: Australian fraudster Belle Gibson. “People shared her story without ever checking if it was true. This is confirmation bias at work, we accept a story uncritically if it confirms what we’d like to believe.” He goes on to share practical steps for maintaining objectivity in a world where algorithms amplify red-meat news designed to stoke existing biases.

Marketers must consider both the reach and the credibility of partnerships. Audience engagement is valuable, but aligning brand messages with verifiable content is essential for brand safety. Even with exceptional resources in diligence, big brands too make poor choices. Apple were caught off guard with the Belle Gibson debacle, launching a marketing strategy to actively promote her as a star app developer.

Mainstream media, ideally rooted in journalistic standards, isn’t immune to the spread of disinformation. Sometimes, in efforts to remain objective, disinformation becomes ‘sanewashed’ for its perceived newsworthiness.

Other times, misinformation seeps through due to sheer tardiness. A notable 2024 example in Australia involved the Bondi Junction incident, where an incorrect name first spread on social media but was legitimised and amplified by mainstream outlets.

This highlights the importance for marketers and advertisers of timing and verification. Reactive campaigns may inadvertently associate brands with misinformation if not carefully monitored.

Denzel Washington, when addressing disinformation with a reporter in 2016, nailed the dilemma: “If you don’t read the newspaper, you’re uninformed. If you do read it, you’re misinformed.” Washington also questioned, “What is the long-term effect of too much information? One of the effects is the need to be first, not even to be true anymore.” His emphasis on media’s responsibility “not just to be first, say it or sell it, but to tell the truth” remains a timeless critique.

For media professionals, brand communication must prioritize accuracy over speed. Authenticity outweighs the need to “always be first’ in campaigns.

Professional journalists are held to far higher standards of accountability than the average individual blasting out content. Fact-checking, editorial oversight, and a history of factual contributions have long supported the legacy of keeping society well-informed. But when the public, through echo chambers or lack of diligence, chooses to ignore accurate reporting, ethical journalism must persist in its educational mission.

Marketers can make an impact by supporting ethical journalism through sponsorships or brand partnerships, simultaneously reinforcing their own trustworthiness with audiences and consumers.

The Social Media News Diet 

Younger generations, particularly Gen Z, absorb much of their news through social media. Users, across all age groups, consume this content quickly via infinite scrolling, baited headlines, and a preference for short-form videos. Platforms are engineered to hook users, making the spread of misinformation, as Agent Smith from The Matrix might say, inevitable.

This presents both risk and opportunity for marketers: content must capture attention quickly but also cut through noise without fueling misinformation.

To further complicate matters, there seems to be an impossible trifecta demanded of journalism in media: it must be high-quality, fast, and cheap (preferably free!). Few industries face consumer-driven economic pressures in this regard the way media industry experiences.

No one expects to snag an iPhone, Tesla, or five-star dining experience for free. Yet there’s a perception that the highest quality journalism should be cheaply accessible and immediate. Any business model stretched thus will show cracks and reach breaking points.

Advertising strategies would ideally account for these economic pressures on publishers, identifying where investment can support sustainable, high-quality content while safeguarding brand reputation.

Long-Form Content: A New Hope? 

Long-form content, especially podcasts, has emerged as a countertrend amidst the rise of independent media. An example being the popular Joe Rogan Experience which consistently ranks as one of the world’s most-listened-to podcasts. Its audience skews heavily male (over 80%) and young (50% aged 18-34).

While it’s heartening to see younger generations tuning into lengthy discussions, the challenge of critical filtering remains crucial, especially in Rogan’s “brogan” domain.

Podcasts may well offer advertisers and marketers highly engaged audiences for deeper brand storytelling, but campaigns must still consider content alignment and audience perception carefully rather than merely eyeballs.

Rogan’s marathon chats with figures like populist figures such as Trump, Musk, or Marc Andreessen are often easily untangled with independent research. For example, Trump’s “big lie” about election fraud in 2020 has been widely debunked, including by senior Republicans and his own administration in the HBO documentary Stopping the Steal.

Rogan’s intent to drill into topics with guests, like Trump, may be sincere, his podcast may well be commercially savvy, yet it’s an ideal guest platform for one-sided downloads driving agendas or self-promotion more than overall objectivity, factual analysis or information.

With a background in comedy, television and UFC commentary, Rogan has even described his own role as a conversationalist (not a journalist), so listeners are also better served experiencing his and similar podcasts through that entertainment lens, not literal fact.

The eSafety Commissioner shares exceptional data on the importance of healthier role models online, especially for that target audience of young men.

For brands and marketers targeting younger audiences, perhaps especially young males, consider partnership, sponsorship or support of independent media that provides both engagement and responsible messaging.

Solutions & Alignment 

One in five Australians now pay for online news, a figure that, while low, is still above the global average of 16%. Choosing to invest in and support fact-checked journalism and media is a smart move in a ‘post-truth’ online world. Especially for those looking to break free from echo chambers!

If paying isn’t an option, people may consider reclaiming their critical thinking from outsourcing their news diet to bias-driven algorithms. Incorporating more variety in where they absorb their information from.

Audiences are mixing up their media diet, using platforms like Ground News to identify biases, to understand depth of stories beyond clickbait headlines.

In an endless stream of news cycles, such actions are essential for staying informed and maintaining trust in the media ecosystem.

This diversification of media diets may also better inform multi-channel strategies. Leading the charge by integrating trusted businesses and bias-aware platforms enhances your own brand perception and audience perception of credibility.

Written by Mark Carter. Have you read?
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