Many of the predictions for journalism on Nieman Lab suggest that there needs to be more emphasis on “un-faking” the news we see and circulate.
In the future, Claire Wardle believes that journalists need to ensure that they are verifying the information that they spread. Wardle points to the use of social media as a news-collecting medium, and stresses the importance of journalists’ role in verifying the information they collect before circulating it. As more people enter the online world and use it to collect their news, it will become increasingly important for journalists to verify the information that is being spread, and debunk the myths circulating. For example, in the wake of many of the terrorist attacks around the world, it has been the priority for journalists to verify their facts before publishing a story. Because much of the information that comes out immediately is on social media, it is important to make sure that lies are not being spread. Wardle’s prediction that journalists will need to verify more facts, particularly those circulating on social media, is likely to be correct as more people enter the online world in the coming years; journalism will be less about finding facts and more about ensuring that they are correct.
A similar view on the role of journalism is expressed by Ole Reissman. His prediction, however, centres more around the general role of journalists in dispelling myths and avoiding “fake news”. He points to the importance of entering the echo chambers of those who avoid the so-called “mainstream media”, stressing that the people who avoid journalism need to be the ones to see it first. For Reissman, it is about democracy and freedom of speech– in an era where there are dictators everywhere, and Trump is president, it is key that journalists continue to do their duty in order to ensure that newsworthy items are reported on, and that fake stories are not.
Both Wardle and Reissman raise important points about where journalism is headed: as we move forward, the responsibility of reporting true and newsworthy stories will fall increasingly to journalists.
