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Three Top Influencers on Building Trust Amid the Chaos: Kate Bacon, David Pakman, and Eric Newcomer

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Manage episode 490988609 series 3352155
Content provided by New Thinking. All podcast content including episodes, graphics, and podcast descriptions are uploaded and provided directly by New Thinking or their podcast platform partner. If you believe someone is using your copyrighted work without your permission, you can follow the process outlined here https://staging.podcastplayer.com/legal.

Welcome to In Reality, the podcast about truth, disinformation, and the media. I’m your host, Eric Schurenberg, a longtime journalist and media executive, now the founder of the Alliance for Trust in Media.

In previous episodes of In Reality, when we’ve talked about media, we’ve focused mostly on legacy outlets—and their simultaneous crises of evaporating trust and shrinking revenues. But that neglects the far healthier and arguably more influential part of today’s national conversation—influencers. In terms of audience size and engagement, many influencers have eclipsed most legacy outlets, especially among younger audiences. Today, we’ll correct that oversight.

Recorded live at my University of Chicago class on the future of media, this conversation features three creators who’ve built large followings without the backing of legacy brands. Eric Newcomer left a cozy traditional journalism job at Bloomberg to create an eponymous Substack newsletter and launch the Cerebral Valley event series. David Pakman runs a multi-platform progressive political opinion shop with millions of followers. And Kate Bacon translated her pre-med degree into viral science videos on TikTok before stepping away to pursue an MBA.

We talk about what makes their models work, how they build trust from scratch, and what guardrails exist in a world with no fact checkers, no editors, and no tradition of journalistic standards. We explore the tension between popularity and integrity, the business incentives that shape their content, and the lessons mainstream media might learn from the parasocial newsroom.

Website - free episode transcripts
www.in-reality.fm

Produced by Tom Platts at Sound Sapien
soundsapien.com

Alliance for Trust in Media
alliancefortrust.com

  continue reading

76 episodes

Artwork
iconShare
 
Manage episode 490988609 series 3352155
Content provided by New Thinking. All podcast content including episodes, graphics, and podcast descriptions are uploaded and provided directly by New Thinking or their podcast platform partner. If you believe someone is using your copyrighted work without your permission, you can follow the process outlined here https://staging.podcastplayer.com/legal.

Welcome to In Reality, the podcast about truth, disinformation, and the media. I’m your host, Eric Schurenberg, a longtime journalist and media executive, now the founder of the Alliance for Trust in Media.

In previous episodes of In Reality, when we’ve talked about media, we’ve focused mostly on legacy outlets—and their simultaneous crises of evaporating trust and shrinking revenues. But that neglects the far healthier and arguably more influential part of today’s national conversation—influencers. In terms of audience size and engagement, many influencers have eclipsed most legacy outlets, especially among younger audiences. Today, we’ll correct that oversight.

Recorded live at my University of Chicago class on the future of media, this conversation features three creators who’ve built large followings without the backing of legacy brands. Eric Newcomer left a cozy traditional journalism job at Bloomberg to create an eponymous Substack newsletter and launch the Cerebral Valley event series. David Pakman runs a multi-platform progressive political opinion shop with millions of followers. And Kate Bacon translated her pre-med degree into viral science videos on TikTok before stepping away to pursue an MBA.

We talk about what makes their models work, how they build trust from scratch, and what guardrails exist in a world with no fact checkers, no editors, and no tradition of journalistic standards. We explore the tension between popularity and integrity, the business incentives that shape their content, and the lessons mainstream media might learn from the parasocial newsroom.

Website - free episode transcripts
www.in-reality.fm

Produced by Tom Platts at Sound Sapien
soundsapien.com

Alliance for Trust in Media
alliancefortrust.com

  continue reading

76 episodes

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