Erica Mandy's Newsworthy 6 Point Blueprint for OBJECTIVELY Better Radio

Erica: 00:00:00

I think I always like to first differentiate between pundits on

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cable channels who very clearly have

a slant and an agenda and they're

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really just giving out their opinions

versus these journalists who are really

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doing their best to be objective.

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Welcome to BRANDwidth On Demand,

your guide to rebooting radio.

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Always look to improve and also don't

overstress because I think sometimes

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we end up hating the news if we're

letting it get to us too much.

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So just do your best and keep going.

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BRANDwidth On Demand.

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Rebooting radio with a different

take on all radio can be.

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Now, your guides through the media

morphosis, David Martin, and author

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of the book, BRANDwidth, media

branding coach, Kipper McGee.

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Our

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Dave: guest is an award winning

broadcast journalist who left her job

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at CBS in Los Angeles to launch a daily

news podcast called The Newsworthy.

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Each morning, she provides a 10

minute rundown of the most important

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headlines as well as weekend long

form interviews with newsmakers.

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Her casual and concise style

helps listeners save time and

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energy for what matters most.

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She's passionate about providing an

unbiased and informative way to stay up

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to date on news while providing multiple

perspectives so her audience gets more

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understanding and fewer eye rolls.

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Since its launch in 2017, the

Newsworthy has been downloaded

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millions of times per month.

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Has been featured in publications

like Harper's Bazaar, Fast Company,

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People Magazine, many others.

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She's also a frequent speaker at

journalism conferences and events,

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a strong advocate for diversity

and inclusion in the news industry.

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Since she's last with us, she's been

named one of the top 25 women in

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podcasting by Podchaser, awarded the

best podcast by Harper's Bazaar magazine.

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Wow.

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And featured as a can't

miss podcast by Stitcher.

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BRANDwidth On Demand is proud to

welcome back one of the very few

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objective news anchors in media today.

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Here's Erica Mandy.

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Hey, Erica.

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Erica: Hey, Erica.

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Welcome.

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Thank you so much for having me on.

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Kipper: Well, we are glad to have

you back and always appreciate

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your making time for us.

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Of course.

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So one thing that continues to impress

me day after day with your news is

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just your sense of objectivity with

everything going on from politics,

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presidential race, unthinkable things

in the Middle East, Ukraine here.

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So in keeping with your mantra

of fast, fair, and fun...

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what do you see as the most

important things to keep in mind

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when trying to be objective whether

covering or anchoring a news

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Erica: story?

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So I think regardless of what's

happening, we really try to understand all

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perspectives through a variety of sources.

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So that might be different

types of experts.

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We're talking to other news outlets.

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We're reviewing and citing potentially

what various reporters on the

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ground are saying, and then also

even looking at what's getting a

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lot of attention on social media

so that we know what our listeners

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might be saying or seeing online.

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And we can address any of

that if needed as well.

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So to be clear, that doesn't mean that.

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We're necessarily including everything

that we see in our show, but doing

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all of that research across multiple

platforms, multiple sources, it gives us

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all the information to then decide what

perspectives do we already have and need

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to include what is still missing, or

perhaps is not verified enough to include

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and or what other context might need to

be added if we include certain things.

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And we also often ask ourselves.

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If a person who supports one side hears

this story, how are they going to feel?

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Did we represent them fairly

in at least part of it?

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And then we ask that question for all the

different perspectives while also keeping

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in mind that we are going to be factual.

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And if there's something that

we can't verify, or if there's

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any claims that warrant it, we

will provide necessary context.

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So ultimately, as I'm sure other

journalists are familiar with.

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Even a one minute, two minute story

in our podcast means that we've

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spent a lot more time researching in

order to be as thorough and objective

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as we can be with our format.

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And obviously, this is more complex

and time consuming for stories

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like the Israel Hamas War and much

more straightforward and much more

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simple for other types of stories.

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Dave: Good point.

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You know, one of the many things

that set your newscast apart is your

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positivity and your use of extremely

neutral language and keeping your

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news stories as brief as possible.

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What tips do you have for an anchor

who wants to stick to the facts

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and let the reader or viewer?

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Draw their own conclusions.

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Erica: Yeah, I think the positivity

piece comes from like the variety of

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stories that we do and trying to avoid

being overly Sensational and I think

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it really does not take much for the

audience to Notice something that makes

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them feel that we're being biased.

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So we really try to avoid words like

shocking and bombshell and amazing

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because I think In a lot of ways,

these are opinions and they make it

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sound sensational and it shows a slant.

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So I think in general, unless it's really,

really called for, we try to avoid that.

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I think the other key thing is

to just, yeah, think about every

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word and what it represents.

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So that's being really

mindful of things like titles.

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So one example might be a certain

Florida bill that everyone was

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talking about for a while that's

known as the don't say gay bill.

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But I think it's our responsibility

to make sure our audience knows that.

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That's actually a nickname from

critics, and we present it in a

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way, no matter how we feel about

it, we present it in a way that is

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clear that critics are calling this.

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This is why critics call it that

and what supporters of the bill

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who passed it are saying about

it and what they call it as well.

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And I think for anchors specifically.

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It also really matters

what our tone of voice is.

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I want to be really mindful about

how I present with my tone, each

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perspective and what my tone might

be communicating to the audience in

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addition to the words that I'm saying.

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Kipper: For somebody who's just starting

out in the business today and wants to

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be as good as they can be at being an

objective journalist, what suggestions

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would you have for them to make sure they

keep their own personal biases in check

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and not let those biases influence the way

a story is written, read, or delivered?

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Erica: First, explicitly and

actively asking yourself.

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If every perspective was fairly

represented in your story, so

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it's taking the time and being

mindful of it is the first step.

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And then I also try to recognize in

myself if I'm feeling overly validated

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or overly upset about a particular story

that we're writing or that I'm reading,

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then there's probably a problem, right?

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So it tells me that I might be

too extreme one way or the other.

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And so I try to feel that I'm not

feeling any certain way about a story.

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So I think it's those two things.

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I also think, in general, it's good

to have more than one pair of eyes

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on every story whenever possible.

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If you can have someone read it

over and say, Hey, is this coming

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across fair, objective to you or any

other questions you have about it?

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It's always good to get a

second perspective if you

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can, if you have the time.

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I know the resources aren't always

available, but we do try to at

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least have two pairs of eyes on

every story before we air it.

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Kipper: But listening to your

newscast, I got to say, I really

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have no idea what Your leanings might

be, no, or do I really want to know?

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But the question is really how

often is it that you get a visceral

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reaction to something and realize

that you better look at it from a more

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objective angle before you record,

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Erica: I think.

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Potentially daily, definitely weekly

where it's not visceral per se, but I

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think there's something that you know,

something's not sitting right here and

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I'll talk with my executive producer

about it and say, Do we feel like

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we're representing this perspective?

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I'm going to do a little more research.

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I'm going to look for if there is a

better argument out there for that

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perspective that I can find when

something just doesn't sit right.

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That's usually when I'll take a second.

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Look, I'll do some more

research and see if we can't.

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Thank you.

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Tweak it so that it feels that we're

just being a little bit more fair,

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or if I, or I feel like, wow, this

is really validating my feelings.

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So I'm going to take a second look and

let's even out how this is coming across.

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So it happens quite often

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Dave: looking at all the different

channels that are out there,

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putting the news together and

putting it up for an offering.

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Different things like slants on

stories or quoting people who

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agree with the point of view of a

journalist or even errors of omission.

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What are some of the common pitfalls,

Erika, that you see journalists

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falling into when they're trying

to be objective, and how do you

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Erica: overcome them?

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Yeah, I think I always like to first

differentiate between pundits on

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cable channels who very clearly have

a slant and an agenda, and they're

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really just giving out their opinions

versus these journalists who are really

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doing their best to be objective.

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And I do think for journalists, I

think one of the pitfalls could be

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that you could start saying what

everyone else is saying because a

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story becomes known as something.

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And so you refer to something a

certain way instead of really taking

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a step back and asking yourself if

there's anything missing or there's

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any additional context that you could

offer, any more transparency that you can

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offer instead of just going with what.

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All the different media are saying,

right, or what you're hearing often

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or how you talk about it with others.

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And so that even reminds me of going

back to the example I brought up earlier

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of don't say the don't say gay bill

that's often referred to in that way.

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It becomes this go to way to describe

the bill and that's how people.

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Know about it.

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And so I think it's easy to fall

into just referring to it that way,

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instead of saying, okay, maybe we need

to offer more context here to make

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sure the audience has the full story.

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Right.

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Kipper: So shifting

gears just a little bit.

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I think I know what your answer

would be because you've left and

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you're doing it now, but for somebody

who's still working for others, how

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would you suggest they deal with.

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Say a manager, boss, salesperson,

somebody who really wants them to use

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a certain skew or slant say like in a

local market where they don't want to

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talk about this car dealer, who's been

jacking prices because he's also the

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mayor, you know, that kind of stuff.

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First of all, have you ever had

something like that happen to you?

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And what recommendation might you offer

for those who still have to deal with it?

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Erica: Yeah, it's a good question.

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I have not had anyone explicitly

tell me they want to be biased or

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slanted or not cover something at

all because it's an advertiser.

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I have had a boss say, Okay,

well, that's an advertiser.

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So I need to know in advance if

we're going to run that story because

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I need to give them a heads up.

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So I feel like it's fair and I

think that there's been, it's been

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reasonable, but I think regardless,

any type of pressure, whether explicit

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or not, can be hard to deal with.

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And, and the thing that I would say

in general is to just think about

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it in any way that, or any time that

you're dealing with a manager or boss,

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you have to try to understand their

goal and also explain your why of.

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How you want to do it and try to come

up with something that you think, and

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maybe present your why in a way that's,

that also addresses what they're looking

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for, which is usually, at least in

my experience, is not so much about

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being biased or having an agenda as it

is about getting ratings and yeah, to

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your point, making advertisers happy.

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So if I were to think of an example of

how to deal with something, let's say

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there's a lead line in there that feels

really sensational and biased to me.

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Maybe I offer.

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Okay, let's leave the lead line in there

because it really draws in attention.

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But could we add more context after that?

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I really think it's important

to add a couple extra lines

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that provide this context.

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And oh, and maybe we can even

link to the document that we're

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referring to at our website.

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It'll draw more people to the website.

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We can pitch them to go to our website.

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And it'll offer some transparency

and help people understand where

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this information is coming from.

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Right?

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So you're trying to think of the ratings

piece, which just being real is what

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drives the news business, but also

trying to say from a news perspective,

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this, I think this context and this

transparency is really important as well.

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And usually, at least in my experience,

news directors have a news mind

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as well as the business mind.

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And so they're going to be open to.

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Wanting to do the best news possible,

I think, especially in local markets

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while also trying to keep in the ratings

and getting attention part of it.

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Dave: Our guest is Erica Mandy

with the Newsworthy Podcast.

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Someone you'd love to hear from.

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We'd love to hear from you.

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Email your suggestions to show.

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At BRANDwidth On Demand.

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com or reach out to us on social

brand with plus on Insta and Facebook.

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That's BRANDwidth P

L U S brand with plus.

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Kipper: Hey, if you're new to the

podcast, we'd love to say welcome

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and please be sure to hit the follow

button wherever you get in this.

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Dave: Coming up, Erica shares

her advice on being objective

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Shout out to the staff and everybody there

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Dave: Our guest is Erica Mandy.

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She's the creator and

host of The Newsworthy.

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Erika, when it comes to

objectivity in news, what's the

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best advice you've ever gotten?

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Erica: I think it's that we will never

make everyone happy and that's okay, as

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long as you're doing your best to be

objective and really, always looking to

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improve, you know, you will likely get

some complaints and let's be open to them.

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And still be able to shake them

off to do better next time or

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to keep going with your mission.

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Dave: And what's the one piece

of advice you'd like to share to

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those who aspire to be you someday?

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Erica: I think that it's rare for

one thing in one News story in

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one show to make or break you.

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So remember that we aren't saving

lives here, but we are doing an

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important job of telling the news.

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So just do your best.

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Always look to improve and also

don't overstress because I think

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sometimes, we end up hating the news.

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If we're letting it get to us too much.

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So just do your best and keep going.

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Dave: Great advice.

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Our thanks to Erica Mandy, creator

and host of the Newsworthy podcast.

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We have links to Erica's podcast,

plus her special episode on

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objectivity in the media.

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All of it in the show notes,

just scroll down on your phone.

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Kipper: As always.

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We want to thank Cindy Huber, our

executive producer, who puts this

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all together, and Hannah B., our

associate producer, for booking.

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And, coming up on the

next BRANDwidth on Demand,

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Fred: it's me, Fred Jacobs, talking with

Kipper and Dave about, well, this, that,

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and everything else as it involves radio,

past, present, and of course, future.

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We'll be talking about innovation,

what's going on with AI.

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How the air personality role has

changed and anything else about radio

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that hopefully we think is relevant.

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So join me on the next episode

of BRANDwidth on Demand.

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Dave: That's a wrap Kipper.

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It's all about company, being

good company, a good companion.

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It's a really a secret to success in

the show notes at brandwithondemand.

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com.

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I'm Dave Martin.

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Kipper: And I'm Kipper McGee.

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: 00:16:54

May all your BRANDwidth be WIDE!