Spotlighting two most important and timeless words that can determine your success as a media psychologist

At first glance, you may be thinking, “what a lousy title for an article.” And if this were about anything else, you would be on solid ground. But your ability to answer that question for whatever content you bring to the media, regardless of your platform—radio, TV, lay-oriented books and articles (self-help or otherwise), newsletters, websites, podcasts, blogs, videos, social media—is the most important determinant of your success in conveying your material to your audience, who are consumers of psychology. In fact, I would argue that it is about the only thing that has not changed in the 44 years since I began my first radio show.

When I was first hired to host a radio program for WCAU in Philadelphia, I was the only station host with no prior broadcast experience or media training. So with three weeks from hire to prepare for my first program, I took the opportunity to hang out with and learn all I could from my new radio colleagues: established hosts on the station (all of whom were previously news or sports broadcasters, disc-jockeys, and/or imports from smaller radio markets).

The best advice I got from the station’s highest rated host was to think of myself not as working for WCAU, but for “WII-FM”: “What’s In It For Me?”. The “Me,” of course, is your audience (as a media psychologist, your rewards might be monetary, exposure for your books and other work, or simply intrinsic). Since your audience is who you are really working for, if they show up in the numbers that make your show profitable, your job and program are secure. The “suits” that hire you are just incidental. No matter how nice or unpleasant your relationship with them may be, ratings and audience share alone (as long as you do not cause legal or destructive PR problems) determine job security, your degree of salary and advancement, and whether or not your show survives.

The key is to determine what pain or fear your audience may be trying to alleviate, or what pleasure they may be seeking. Consider that as the Holy Grail for selecting the content you present or allow on your program. Understandably, I came to realize that many psychologists who are used to having captive audiences (such as students, colleagues, or invited talk attendees) had the hardest time with this, either because they did not realize it or found it offensive.

About five years later, I found myself in New York hosting for NBC Talknet, an advancement in my radio career that I credit to that early advice. On the other side of the glass, where the call screeners worked, there was a giant wall banner that said: “WHO CARES?”. With 1,500 calls coming in every hour from listeners wanting to be on the air, call screeners had the luxury of selecting only the best callers—according to the network’s tried, true, and well-researched formula—to put on the air. And when their supervisor determined that a “bad call” got through, the screener actually had to give a logical answer to that “who cares” question to avoid a negative entry in their personnel file!

So what has changed in media psychology since then? Just about everything that could change, except for those two words. Your degree of success is largely determined by whether your message is one that people want to hear about, regardless of whether they even agree with it (and in fact, your most loyal followers often do disagree).

Your target audience may be small: recently divorced women over 65, for example. Or it can be large, such as people seeking happiness and success, handling difficult emotions such as anxiety and depression, or all of the above (as the NBC radio network aimed for). The question remains the same: what does your audience care about? Of everything else they can be reading, watching, listening to, or interacting with on social media, why should they spend their precious time engaging with what you have to say?

Moreover, for every word in your website, book, article, podcast, or blog, et cetera, your ability to answer the question “why should they care?” will determine how effective of a connection you establish with your audience.

Finally, a word about branding. Many colleagues that I have spoken to over the years think that they are their brand. Nothing can be further from the truth! Your audience does not care about you, how many degrees you have or from where, or how many honors you have achieved (beyond establishing your basic credentials as an expert, or at least someone who knows more about the topic than they do). Your brand is what you can do for them the minute they need it.

Many branding experts point to Federal Express as the most enduring, effective, and successfully branded company of all time. With that in mind, do you care how many thousands of employees Federal Express has, or how many planes and trucks are in their fleet, or that they created a whole new industry? That is not their brand. Their brand is what you care about, which is that when you “FedEx” something, it will “absolutely and positively get where you want it to go overnight” (as they put it).

Your brand as a media psychologist is simply what you can do for your audience that they want or need. That’s it! I’m not saying that making this determination is always easy, but it is that simple. For 44 years, I have looked for exceptions to this rule and come up with crickets. So regardless of the medium in which you work, keep that in mind and you will just about always be on the track to success.

Further Reading

Broder, M. (2024). A brief history of media psychology. In G. J. Rich, V. K. Kumar, & F. H. Farley (Eds.), Handbook of media psychology: The science and the practice. Springer Nature Switzerland.

Broder, M. S. (1999). So you want to work in the media? 21 things I wish I had known when I first asked myself that question. In L. L. Schwartz (Ed.), Psychology and the media: A second look (pp. 25–36). American Psychological Association. https://doi.org/10.1037/10336-007