“Journalists from all over the world (France included) stand accused of being disconnected with reality and unable to forecast the news.” – ALICE ANTHEAUME
The newspaper is practically a relic nowadays in France. With a reported average of 164 avid newspaper-readers per 1000 in the country, France could be foreshadowing what will become a reality across the globe.
According to results of this study, over two thirds of the French population believe journalists are under pressure from authorities higher up, accounting for less reliable journalism.
Such suspicion isn’t exactly unjustified. In the early 16th century, a French publication known as La Gazette would be circulated with rumours about British affairs inundating its pages.
Considering much of the paper’s information was dispatched from questionable sources in London, the publisher (Théophraste Renaudot) would constantly need to remind his audience of the potential partiality of reports.
For example, in a preface to a discussion on Scottish events, Renaudot stated:
“While the King of Britain has just published today… the motives and progress of these troubles, I would be criticised if I do not assign them at least some small corner in the vast tableau of events of this era.”
You can read more about that here.
Irrespective of its history, journalism is not always unreliable and disconnected from the truth. There has always been some level of scepticism surrounding the media; perhaps this has simply increased in recent decades due to an increased efficiency of distributing information (I’m looking at you, Internet).
Furthermore, the rise of fake news doesn’t exactly help our cause (as seen on channels such as Fox and Donald Trump’s Twitter feed) .
“Reality” is always seen through a different lens depending on the individual. Perception is relative, truth must be absolute.
A few broken eggs doesn’t make the whole batch bad. Fake news has caused people to put less trust in stories circulated in the media; now it is a matter of convincing the audience of the facts through consistency and proactivity.
“2017 may be the year Facebook gets permanently branded as part of the problem.” – RYAN MCCARTHY
Social media. We’ve all got it (unless you’re that one friend we always have to SMS to invite to stuff). Maybe you’ve got Twitter but only because you’re in journalism and it’s a must-have to stay in the loop.
Social media is undoubtably a fantastic tool for communication. Live Facebook updates keep us informed of breaking news. Despite this, the aforementioned study found that 83% of social network users believed they had been exposed to fake news.
If we look the results of the Buzzfeed survey mentioned in this article, the data tells us that Facebook is the second-most popular source of news, after TV broadcasts.
There seems to be a link between levels of distrust and common media sources.
As the article conveys, just because someone consumes news from a source on Facebook doesn’t make its reporting trustworthy and true.
There has been a recent spike in fake news. It’s a matter of educating people on what to trust (and whom).
Take a look at this list of fake news sites so you have an idea of what unreliable sources look like. (Basically, if it looks dodge or sounds fishy, it probably is).
Facebook in and of itself isn’t the problem – what it comes down to is awareness of reliable news sites.
(You can find an extensive list of other Niemann Predictions here if you so desire.)
