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The Future of Media in a Post-Truth Age | Oxford Union
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1:34
Hello and welcome to a panel discussion on 'The Future of Media in a Post-Truth Age'. The panelists are Jeremy O'Grady, Editor-in-Chief of The Week, Robert Guest, Foreign Editor of The Economist and Jim White, Telegraph columnist, writer, and broadcaster.
The panelists have assembled to discuss the future for the media and how can it retain its relevance in this changing social and political climate. Is the diligence and journalistic integrity of the mainstream media being overlooked in favour of clickbait, sensationalised stories in a post-truth age?
1:52
Robert Guest starts the discussion with a curious story during the early age of the printing press when a series of false reports the American newspaper New York Sun ran in 1835 of a man who saw fantastical things in the sky through the modern telescope after which came the age of newspapers whose buyers relied on their credibility to buy a set of disconnected stories but we have gone back to the age of anonymous fake news that can generate clicks and ad revenue.
1:55
Guest says, "If you want to find out what's really going on in the world, it costs and someone has to pay." It can be the readers, advertising, the public or rich philanthropists.
1:56
1:57
Jeremy O'Grady says that Reuters did a survey on digital news last year to which a very high percentage of people said that their issue is with the mainstream media and not the people.
1:59
2:01
Jim White recounts how the change has been revolutionary to the point that The Independent is no longer printing a newspaper. He says, "The people who were certain that the newspapers will be printed are in uncertainties."
2:04
The moderator frames the key question for the panel, "Have we now moved out of the fact-based truth orthodoxy and there seems to be more bypassingship in the news, more than ever?"
2:08
White thinks that the shift happened because now everyone has an opportunity to be a journalist in their pocket and the sophistication required for it. "Now we have greater means in our pocket than we have collectively", he said.
2:10
2:11
White also warns of the risks that accompany this change, "There are enormous dangers in our world, dangers of trust, dangers of what we believe in. I think we are at the cusp of really, really exciting world."
2:12
White inspires the youth present at the Oxford Union, "When you guys go out in the media, as I imagine a large number of you will, I think what you can do is create a new world via that new technology."
2:23
Guest agrees with White that the onus is on the people to have a healthy skepticism but further complicates the question. He asks, "But is it also on print journalism and now, Facebook and Twitter to actually regulate themselves and try and be the arbiter of truth or is it simply that we cannot do that and it is with people to themselves have skepticism and if that is the answer, how do we encourage people to get to that place?"
2:30
O'Grady adds that he is interested in knowing why it is so difficult to believe and wonders if it is only because the politics of identity has become strong now. According to him, it is also because of the distrust in mainstream media.
2:33
O'Grady quotes Alan Russ Bridger at The Guardian, "Objectivity is the will of the wisp and one should not be seduced by that." O'Grady says, "The whole objective reporting as an ideal, I do think, is under threat now and partly because we, as consumers, are losing trust."
2:36
O'Grady says, "Giving the responsibility, of where the information is coming from, to the platforms is dangerous." He suggests, "We could work on a better regulatory system. It'll require extreme vigilance."
2:39
what do you think is more widespread?
Objective new (0% | 0 votes)
 
Regulated New (0% | 0 votes)
 
Total Votes: 0
2:43
Jim White responds to the question of where the onus lies to counteract the fake narrative with the example of how the New York Times is doing very well during Donald Trump's presidency as they have emerged as a centre of skepticism and almost a centre of opposition to Trump. White says, "There is a kind of retreat and return to traditional methodologies in a country where things are becoming divided."
2:47
White thinks that Trump calling every criticism fake news is a trick and a device as due to this, the people's distrust in news begins to grow.
2:49
White thinks that the key concern is that we must figure out how to maintain the air of vigilance.
He sums up the panel discussion and says, "It can only be maintained by proper scrutiny."
2:52
Thank you for joining us for the discussion.
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