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Press Panel: The Future of Media in a Post-Truth Age
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Sujan
1:35
Good morning! This is a live blog of the press panel on The Future of Media in a Post-Truth Age. We have Jeremy O'Grady, Editor-in-Chief of The Week, Robert Guest, Foreign Editor of The Economist. Jim White, Telegraph columnist, writer, and broadcaster on the panel today.
1:48
Jeremy kicks off by saying that, "Today, we will distinguish between two phenomenon, one is the phenomenon of fake news where its just made up stuff, and the other is more so eating the faith of news, the idea of partisanship, the problem with the mainstream media."
1:50
"It is the sense that we can no longer trust the objectivity of what we're reading", he continues.
1:51
1:53
Jim White says,"We have the opportunity to deliver our senses of opinions our sense of the world."
1:54
Speaking about clickbait news, Robert says ""There is a real problem with trusting whether what you are reading is true, and that has an effect on politics."
1:55
Jeremy responds, "Not just a problem of identifying the fake news which is an easier problem to solve or the economic problem of paying the fake news, what we need is to know how much we are in this post truth age"
"And what can we do about it?"
Jim adds to it by saying, "Every single one of us can be a journalist just as sophisticated as those with us back in 1986 who were putting independent together."
1:57
Robert adds "Gathering accurate news requires money, writing fake news is rather easy."
"If you want news that is accurate, someone has to pay for it."
2:04
"Intelligent people are not necessarily wise", Robert says.
"What is it that is making people wiser these days to be susceptible on the genuineness of the news?"
2:06
Would you consider paying for the news you consume?
Yes (0% | 0 votes)
 
NO (0% | 0 votes)
 
Total Votes: 0
2:07
Moderator seeking Robert's comment asks, "Why are people seem to be more intelligent, have we moved out of the fact based truth orthodoxy and there seems to be more bipartisanship than ever."
"Intelligent people are not necessarily wise", Robert says. He further asks, "What is it that is making people wiser these days to be susceptible on the genuineness of the news?"
2:08
Jeremy comes in to say, "I'm interested in knowing why it is, if it is that we're finding it so much more difficult to believe that it is the lack of trust in mainstream media."
2:11
"In Britain the news has become more entangled", he added.
2:12
Jim has something interesting to say! "You know, in America recently, The New York Times has just announced its best figures of all time in terms of Internet subscriptions, print sales and so on."
2:14
The moderator asks, "Where does the onus lie to counteract the fake narrative?"
Trustworthiness of news media worldwide 2020
https://www.statista.com/statistics/308468/importance-brand-journalist...
2:15
Robert answers, "It's on the people to have a healthy skepticism but it is also on print journalism and now Facebook and Twitter to actually regulate themselves and try and be the arbitrator of truth."
2:19
The moderator inquires, "Is it that we cannot do that and it is with people to themselves have our skepticism? If it is that, what is the line where people need to apply their own judgement to identify truth from fake news"
2:20
Jeremy replies, "Epistemic vigilance or just vigilance about where the info is coming and how to sort it out, the danger of giving that responsibility is the platform becomes the invigilator of truth."
2:21
He adds that an operator needs to be created for the platforms to reduce the number of fake news coming out of them.
2:22
Taking it forward, Robert says, "The first responsibility of the journalist is to get facts right. But even if you do get them right, you will not be able to describe it in a way that other people seeing the same set of facts will interpret like. So, multiplicity of sources is important."
2:23
"Everyone should read about things that one doesn't agree with. If you do that, you will get a well rounded overview of what is happening around the world. Even if you are working really hard to get the news right, there will still be people who will just be getting the wrong side of the stake," he adds.
2:25
Do you get your news from a single source, or read from multiple sources?
Only a few. (0% | 0 votes)
 
Multiple sources, with diverse opinions. (0% | 0 votes)
 
Total Votes: 0
2:26
Talking about New Age media, Jeremy says, "A fantastic jungle of podcasts and various other forms of learning is going on, which simply weren't there before. We are going into the more truth era."
2:29
Q&A session
Question - How do you feel about the democratization of news, now that everyone has access to it?
2:30
Robert replies, "It is good that a lot of people are getting the opportunity to let their voices heard, but it's not a good thing, if they are using that opportunity to cook up propaganda."
2:34
Jim says, "we have now an opportunity to democratize, because all of us have a camera all the time."
"News is no longer something that people like us decide to show."
2:35
Question - In India, Cobra Post carried out a sting post about top media companies where they were influenced by the BJP, and none of the top houses covered it, as they were the one who were accused.
Robert replies, "This is a typical problem about India where there is a lot of conflict of interest in India, but in a country where people are blind about the powers of media, it is really easy to fool them."
Ouch! That hurts.
And that ladies and gentlemen, wraps up our coverage for today's panel discussion. Thank you for tuning in.
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