What is the PESO method?

Why should I care? How can I use it to spot fake news?

The graphic is credited to the amazing Gini Dietrich at Spin Sucks.

I was going to write an entire post defining the PESO method, but I would instead refer you to Gini Dietrich, who created the framework a decade ago. Please read her post on what the PESO method means for more information.

When I started studying my career field in 2000, there was no social media. It didn’t exist. Owned media was a different concept at the time. Most of the media and outlets we have today didn’t exist.

Yet, as new technologies develop, the PESO method has become one of my favorite frameworks for people in the public relations field to break it all down.

But it goes so much beyond that. I also like to use the PESO method to teach media literacy to general consumers. If you are aware of this model that people are using for public relations, it is easier to know what is true and false.

For instance, I love that ANYONE can create an owned media platform that may look like a news website. I do not love that most consumers do not know this. I have found that people sometimes have difficulty telling the difference between very biased and propagandized owned content or platforms and real news websites. I hope breaking it down can help clarify the differences, and I will give you some signs to know.

Not all owned content is bad! In fact, 99 percent of it is fantastic for gaining alternative perspectives. The problem is when bad actors or confused people present owned content as journalism or are not truthful about who is behind it and their agenda. Ultimately, it comes down to labeling and informed education about what you are consuming, aka media literacy.

If you are reading owned content and thinking it is a news website, which I fear from my own observations that many Americans are doing, then you are not getting a clear version of the truth. The same is true of shared content.

Today’s Takeaway: PESO stands for Paid, Earned, Shared, and Owned content. People in the communications industry use this framework to develop content, but understanding it as a consumer can give you valuable insight into what is true versus spin as we navigate our world in 2024. PESO content overlaps with journalism, but it is not journalism in most cases.

Over the next few weeks, I will explain these various components of our media ecosystem. We’ll then go further in-depth over each one and emerging trends that consumers should know about as they observe content around them.

We’ll address these types of topics:

Paid: How do you identify if something is paid content or organic? How do you know who paid for it? Knowing if someone is paying for the content may influence your perspectives.

Over time, we’ll explain how various news funding models work. We’ll discuss how money and ownership do or do not affect content.

Eventually, after explaining my observations of this over two decades in the field including doing PR for journalism brands, I will also get into my own ideas of how I think we can maintain the field of journalism.

Earned: How do you use it to advocate for yourself? How do you dissect articles to understand where they came from and what is true? How do you observe it to better understand the news story? (Spoiler: I think access to earned media is critical to a healthy democracy. That is why I do it for a living, but you can and should be doing it as part of your duty as an American citizen.)

Shared: How do you use it to advocate for yourself? In what ways has it benefited society, and how has it been harmful? How do you know if something shared is disinformation?

Owned: How can you tell if something is owned content? This means that someone who develops it controls the message so that it could be biased. How does owned content differ from news content? How is it similar? How is it good for society? How can it be harmful?

Owned content does not mean that if Jeff Bezos owns the Washington Post, all content is biased toward Amazon. That is not how it works because of the traditional news industry's business model. I will explain the difference between what I mean by talking about owned and paid media and the various business models available. I will also explain how it has changed over time and new emerging business models.

Before you can tell if something is spin or not, I would argue that a critical point of observation, as part of the picture, should be whether it is paid, earned, shared, or owned content. I will guide you on how to know and what questions to ask. As mentioned in my previous posts, I have seen people confuse some aspects of the PESO method with journalism, leading to a crisis of truth.

I want to be very clear here: no elements of the PESO method are bad. They are all great and needed! Yet, sometimes, content can be deceiving. We’ll talk about the benefits and downsides of each type—from a consumer’s perspective.