While CNN News correspondent Kristie Lu Stout has spent almost two decades reporting news to the public, it was news from her nine-year-old daughter back in Hong Kong that she first shared with Town&Country.
“At her elementary school, she’s just started a friendship club,” Stout explained, “It’s a club she started with her best friends for children who may not have a friend or maybe their own friends did not show up to school that day.”
That little club had three new members that day, her daughter told her. “I’m so proud of her for doing that because I think kindness and compassion are the most important values in the world,” said Stout.
Stout was in Manila to headline a panel discussion sponsored by CNN Philippines.
After months of #MeToo revelations, Stout gave us a preview of her advocacy, the main reason why she's in Manila.
“There’s research that says girls lose self-esteem by the time they transition into junior high, and we need to end that confidence gap,” she said. She described how young women have a tendency to question themselves and about the increasing need for women role models in the workplace—all points from the spiel she would be giving at the CNN panel the next day.
“There are some major obstacles we have to surmount,” she said. One of her proposed solutions: volunteer to be a role model for girls.
The ABC’s of media literacy
A seasoned journalist and news correspondent, Stout said the news industry is at a critical point in time. The advancement of fake news is taking a toll on media literacy, as it’s becoming a tougher battle for traditional news companies that find their way to the consumer. Stout, who’s spoken to secondary school students about news verification, urges news consumers to revisit their ABC’s—Accuracy, Balance, and Credibility.
“In the United States, we learned about junk food and the food pyramid,” she said. “I think we need to learn about junk media, which is not taught in schools.”
Credibility is our brand name but I am concerned that news viewers need to be more aware of the deluge of fake news, junk media, and also be aware of how to protect themselves [from that].
"Is this accurate? Is this providing the full view? Is this coming from a source that I should trust?"
These are the questions Stout wants every news consumer to ask in the process of sifting through the real news and the junk news. Of course, Stout trusts that CNN goes through “rigorous checks” before airing any material. “Credibility is our brand name but I am concerned that news viewers need to be more aware of the deluge of fake news, junk media, and also be aware of how to protect themselves [from that],” she said.
With the rise of fake news comes a subsequent rise of the online troll, a person who begins unreasonable discourse by baiting others on social media. The troll epidemic hits the comment sections of news sites the hardest and it’s becoming more difficult to ignore it.
On the stresses of dealing with online trolls, Stout advises people not to engage with them. “It’s really best to take a moral high ground, and you have the power to mute that person who is trolling you,” she said. For those emotionally affected or intimidated by an online troll, Stout said the solution is to talk it out with real-life peers. “Talk about it so you don’t feel that you’re alone and this random troll won’t get to your head and undermine your self-esteem and confidence.” Another quick solution is to mute the troll and by that, she said, you render them obsolete.
News in the social media age
In the early ‘90s, Stout lived in Beijing. The Chinese city left such an impression on her: She had the privilege of riding her bike past the old Summer Palace whenever she chose and had an amazing backdrop of Ming Dynasty structures juxtaposed in an urban landscape. She called it “surreal and beautiful.”
Back then it was still the pre-smartphone era in Beijing, and she could socialize with both expats and locals without getting distracted by technology.
“No one would be looking at their devices or Instragramming their food,” she said. “People were really caught up in the moment of exchanging ideas with each other. It was kind of an idealistic time.”
The interaction changed after the introduction of the smartphone, but Stout uses this medium, particularly social media, to her advantage. With 165,000 followers on Twitter and 51,000 on Facebook (as of this writing), she actively interacts with her audiences daily. She said in the beginning, she thought of using the social networking sites to interact with newsmakers and further engage CNN audiences, but she eventually realized the online influence had a greater power. “I feel I have to use social media increasingly to take the best of CNN’s content to those platforms for perhaps certain people, generations, or audiences who may not be watching CNN and would be missing out on important stories,” she said.
I think it’s really important for people to understand what’s happening in Myanmar, or in North Korea, or in the United States so it’s important to share those stories in a social space in case people miss out.
Stout gives #FOMO, or the fear of missing out, a whole other meaning by spreading crucial information in between the cat videos and the Facebook friend’s vacation photos on a typical newsfeed. “I think it’s really important for people to understand what’s happening in Myanmar, or in North Korea, or in the United States so it’s important to share those stories in a social space in case people miss out.”
Asking the questions that’s on everybody’s mind
What’s amazing about Stout is her ability to ask the questions most people wonder about but no one dares to ask. During an interview with Vogue editor in chief Anna Wintour in Beijing, the correspondent had the guts to ask Wintour about The Devil Wears Prada, which was based on a book written by the fashion editor’s former assistant. Stout said she thought to herself, “Oh my goodness, if I ask about The Devil Wears Prada, she’s going to hate me for life.” Cleverly, she built up to that moment and finally ask the burning questions: how did she feel about that experience and whether she felt betrayed? Wintour’s exact response on CNN Style was simple, but interesting, “I think I’m decisive and I like to get things done quickly. So if that comes across as intimidating, I’m sorry to hear it.”
What made that interview even more memorable for Stout was the fact that documentary filmmaker Andrew Rossi was behind her. Rossi was working on a film released in 2016 called The First Monday in May, which tells the story of the 2015 Met Gala. Rossi wanted to ask Wintour that question but was too afraid to do it. That clip of Stout asking Wintour provided Rossi with a much-awaited answer and he eventually used that in his film. “I’m really proud of that because sometimes you have to ask the hard or embarrassing questions but you have to think about a way to create a safe space to work up to that moment,” Stout said
It’s about something far greater than you, which is collecting information, getting answers, and servicing your audience—that’s what drives me.
