{"id":14928,"date":"2020-02-17T11:34:24","date_gmt":"2020-02-17T11:34:24","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/sandbox.world-media-group.com\/?p=14928"},"modified":"2020-02-17T11:34:24","modified_gmt":"2020-02-17T11:34:24","slug":"journalism-2020-the-rise-of-populism-key-takeaways","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sandbox.world-media-group.com\/admin\/2020\/02\/17\/journalism-2020-the-rise-of-populism-key-takeaways\/","title":{"rendered":"Journalism 2020: The Rise of Populism KEY TAKEAWAYS"},"content":{"rendered":"

Fake news surrounds us. To an extent, it always has: propaganda, misinformation and lies are as old as language itself. But the rise of technology, the power and influence wielded by the internet, by social media, has meant that fakery has become more sophisticated, more widespread and more damaging to trust in the media than ever before.<\/strong><\/p>\n

The concept of journalism is founded on truth and impartiality. But when those founding principles have perceivably been brought into disrepute, whether deserved or not, media companies and outlets must act.<\/p>\n

The World Media Group kicked off its 2020 events calendar with a session looking at this subject, and asking: what are the implications of fake news, for journalism and advertising, and what can news organisations do to counter the public\u2019s growing disaffection with the media?<\/p>\n

The session was chaired by Sarah Thorpe, managing director, Europe at The New York Times, who kicked off proceedings asking panellists to try to define the sometimes nebulous term.<\/p>\n

Fake news: nothing new<\/strong><\/p>\n

\u201cFake news has been in existence as long as news has been in existence, in very varying degrees whether through bias, opinion or downright manipulation of information,\u201d said Phillipa Leighton-Jones, editorial director, innovation at The Wall Street Journal.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhat\u2019s changed is the velocity and sophistication of the tools available, which is in many cases playing into an increasingly polarised political environment. [Fake news] could conceivably mean everything from the most sophisticated deep-fake to someone not being honest about where their information has come from in an otherwise respected newspaper.<\/p>\n

For Anne McElvoy, senior editor and head of Economist Radio at The Economist, fake news boils down to motivation. \u201cFake news has to be about the intention to distort or deceive,\u201d she said. \u201cIf that\u2019s not the intention then it\u2019s not fake news. We should also be aware that the media is capable of committing fake news without meaning to. It\u2019s something we have to transparent about. What do we do when we screw up?\u201d<\/p>\n

Mary Wilkinson, head of editorial content at BBC Global News, cited a Reuters report from last year that \u201cshowed that in the UK alone, trust in news has dropped from 55% in 2015 to just 40% last year\u201d.<\/p>\n

“So I think as a reputable broadcaster, we need to do our utmost to ensure truth stands out from the crowd and that people know there are places to go to for accurate and impartial information.\u201d<\/p>\n

Hazel Baker, global head of UGC news gathering at Reuters, hates the term \u2018fake news\u2019. \u201cIt\u2019s so broad, it\u2019s ill-defined and tells you nothing,\u201d she said. \u201cIt\u2019s been used by politicians and members of the public. I think categorisation is really important when it comes to actually assessing problems and understanding. The broad categories in fake news are misinformation – the spreading of false information \u2013 and disinformation \u2013 the deliberate spreading of false information.\u201d<\/p>\n

Undermining advertiser trust<\/strong><\/p>\n

As a cultural malaise, fake news has worrying implications for brands and their relationship with media owners.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe net impact is that often advertisers don\u2019t know where to go,\u201d said Leighton-Jones. \u201cIn some cases this has led to instances of \u2018blacklisting\u2019, where advertisers won\u2019t place ads against key words such as \u2018Trump\u2019. It\u2019s a crude measure.<\/p>\n

\u201cOverall, what that loss of confidence among advertisers could mean for media at large is less funding for quality journalism, which costs a lot of money to make.\u201d<\/p>\n

Wilkinson concurred. \u201cI think it\u2019s in the interests of advertisers where their ads are going to be,\u201d she said. \u201cSubscriptions are rapidly growing, but good quality journalism is still dependent on advertiser revenue. I would buy direct, you don\u2019t always have to go via the advertising platforms.\u201d<\/p>\n

Reining in anti-social media<\/strong><\/p>\n

The degree of power and the influence wielded by social platforms is having a detrimental effect on reporting, according to Alex Wood, Europe editor at Forbes, who argued that journalism needed to retain its historically more considered approach to the gathering and dissemination of information.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s about slowing down,\u201d he said. \u201cWe\u2019re becoming obsessed with the clicks \u2013 the race to get into Google News is a race to the bottom.\u201d<\/p>\n

It\u2019s a point that resonated with all the panelists, the consensus being that greater regulation governing online platforms was of paramount importance.<\/p>\n

Wood in particular welcomed this month\u2019s news that Ofcom will be given greater powers over social media, which will force them to act over harmful or overtly erroneous content.<\/p>\n

The \u201cidea that they don\u2019t have the same responsibilities as publishers\u201d is a massive concern, he said. \u201cWhen they have the capacity to change opinion and change the world, they have to abide by the same standards. The game is really up for platforms. This idea that they can pretend they don\u2019t have the same responsibilities as a publisher is wildly dated. When you think of the capacity they have to influence opinion and to change the world, I think they have to behave in the same way, to the same standards.\u201d<\/p>\n

In the main, standards among news organisations are as high as they have ever been. But in order to combat public scepticism\u00a0 \u2013\u00a0and to reassure advertisers \u2013 communicating that fact has become crucial.<\/p>\n

Accordingly, the BBC has a public-facing website that \u201ccovers everything from misinformation to disinformation, debunking rumours and theories doing the rounds on social media\u201d, Wilkinson said.<\/p>\n

The truth will out<\/strong><\/p>\n

Meanwhile, the broadcaster last year convened the Trusted News Summit. \u201cWe\u2019re now working with a number of partners because no one publisher can do this on their own,\u201d she said. \u201cIt includes the FT, Facebook, Google, Reuters, AFP, where we\u2019re going to try and set up an early warning system because in certain situations, particularly in developing or new democracies, disinformation is actively dangerous.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re trying to establish a framework where one publisher can alert everyone else and the tech platforms and hopefully nip things in the bud before they go completely viral.\u201d<\/p>\n

Wilkinson is optimistic about the future.<\/p>\n

\u201cOn polarising subjects, there\u2019ll always be people who believe what they want to believe. But there will be subjects where they will need to know the facts, and if those publications have a track record of being accurate and impartial, they will turn to those outlets. The antidote to all this is keep on doing very good journalism, explain your methods and when you make mistakes, admit them, and hopefully the truth will out.\u201d<\/p>\n

Belinda Barker
\nWorld Media Group<\/p>\n

Photos: Jane Clipston<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Fake news surrounds us. To an extent, it always has: propaganda, misinformation and lies are as old as language itself. But the rise of technology, the power and influence wielded by the internet, by social media, has meant that fakery has become more sophisticated, more widespread and more damaging to trust in the media than […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":14908,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[29,20],"tags":[62,87,88,89,90,78,91,92,70,93,94,95,80],"class_list":["post-14928","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-key-takeaways","category-news","tag-62","tag-advertiser-trust","tag-anti-social-media","tag-belinda-barker","tag-fake-news","tag-global","tag-journalism","tag-journalism-2020","tag-key-takeouts","tag-newsroom","tag-populism","tag-rise-of-populism","tag-wmg"],"yoast_head":"\nJournalism 2020: The Rise of Populism KEY TAKEAWAYS - World Media Group<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/sandbox.world-media-group.com\/admin\/2020\/02\/17\/journalism-2020-the-rise-of-populism-key-takeaways\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Journalism 2020: The Rise of Populism KEY TAKEAWAYS - World Media Group\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Fake news surrounds us. 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