Julia Brannan-Rauch Julia Brannan-Rauch

If you have Facebook friends like mine, your feed during the past few months has been filled with posts culled from news sources far and wide. Everyone seems eager to discuss the latest disaster befalling our government, or — depending on the individual’s political bent — eager to share the triumphs of all things Trump.

Some of the headlines lure me right in. I skip through the birthday notices, baby pictures and cat memes and, there it is, that lurid teaser, drawing me in deeper: “What the heck!?” I’m left questioning the veracity of this news source I’ve never heard of. Is it real? What self-respecting journalist would position a story like this? Can I believe it? Should I believe this?

There are as many points of view as there are people writing this stuff. Increasingly, I’m reverting to my former habits, and turning to journalists who are giving me “real news”: those fully-developed stories from trusted, traditional news sources. The very ones that have most come under Trump’s fire in recent weeks.

Apparently, I’m not alone. Paid subscriptions and views at The New York Times are up. NPR reports that its multi-platform journalism has a growing audience. Other outlets like The Washington Post and CNN are upping their spending on investigative reporting, as readers, viewers and listeners request coverage that goes beyond the 15-second sound bite or a 140-character Tweet.

Admittedly, some of this has been in play for a while. It’s a natural evolution, a “normalizing” of the media financial model which now is able to deliver and capitalize on news in multiple platforms. Beyond the basic finances, these types of news outlets provide an environment of quality content, which brings like-minded advertisers, and attracts like-minded readers, viewers and listeners.

Unwittingly, Donald Trump seems to be driving home the need for a free and informed press to a range of Americans across the country, and Americans seem to be responding to that realization by tuning in to outlets that were previously taken for granted.

Will this Presidency be responsible for a revitalized media industry? The signs of this is happening are already there. Time will tell how the political environment will continue to shape journalism and, just as importantly, how it will shape media consumption.

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Julia Brannan-Rauch is co-founder of MoJJo Collaborative Communications.