“Many critics and observers have expressed concern that ours is a ‘post-truth’ era in which objective facts are less influential in shaping public opinion than appeals to emotion or ideological belief. What are the implications of this position for the role of journalists in society?”
‘Post-truth’ relates to circumstances in which objective facts are less influential in shaping public opinion than appeals to emotion and personal belief. To understand the role of a journalist in this ‘post-truth’ era this essay aims to provide a discussion of a need for journalists to be more transparent and tell essential truths, to let the readers involve themselves in their research, sources and in the process of fact-checking. People’s emotions play a big role in making decisions and developing an opinion. We are living in an era where politicians and other outlets are trying to push a preferred message and mould the truth into the idea that there isn’t any knowable objective truth at all. This is why the role of a journalist in society is so important, to hold the powerful accountable.
In “Journalism and the Public Opinion” by Rollo Ogden, he argues that there will always be paradoxes when you look at the threshold between the media and the public opinion (Ogden 1913, 194), “Newspapers appear to have a power both vast and dangerous than at times, they seem to have none at all – powerless to either create or direct public sentiment” (Ogden 1913, 195). In “Professional Identity and Roles of a Journalist” John Hanitzsch, he argues that journalistic roles lead to a sense of normative and cognitive beliefs while ground in the institutional framework of the real world (Hanitzsch, 2017). He suggests that normative roles of a Journalist are generalized expectations of what a society most likely desires and tell us how journalists are expected to meet the aspirations and ideals of the general public (Hanitzsch, 2017).
Ogden discusses the importance of journalism during election times and political scenes stating that “this is a region where facts are most confuse and the conclusions most dubious” (Ogden 1913, 196). There are certain limitations put on journalist due to the nature of the ‘post-truth’ era and control information. He talks about the implications of these limitations of the newspapers and one of them being how the media can’t create human emotion but journalists can “skillfully kindle them when they exist” (Ogden 1913, 197). What does this mean for a journalist? Journalists are constantly concerning themselves with political interest and social concerns that develop from the public emotions and beliefs in the hope that they can powerfully play off those passions. Ogden discusses this in reference how in 1912 in America the press tried to play a huge part in politics in order to bring about change. “Politicians and others attacked by the newspapers are heard bitterly to say that if they could write the headlines they would not care what appeared in the rest of the paper” (Ogden 1913, 199). Here we see him suggest that politician would prefer to essential use clickbait or misleading titles in order to divert or attract attention to a certain article. Click-bait headlines typically aim to exploit the “curiosity gap”, providing just enough information to make readers curious, but not enough to satisfy their curiosity without clicking through to the linked content and this was all too prevalent during the 2016 US Presidential election and all throughout the Brexit campaign. The problem with clickbait is that is loaded with manipulation. A journalist may feel the need to use clickbait in order to gain attention but it is ultimately damaging to the public sphere. We live in a world that is saturated with media and readers see their reality through this but they aren’t transparent actions but involve the workings of power.
In “Shifting roles, Enduring values: The credible journalist in a digital age” by Arthur S. Hayes, Jane B. Singer, and Jerry Ceppos, they consider the challenges journalist face as a result of ‘post-truth’. According to Edelman’s “Trust Barometer 2018,” global trust in social platforms has fallen by two points since last year, while trust in journalism has risen by five points(Edelman, 2018). According to Edelman, they believe that the decline is due to the credibility of peer communication (Edelman, 2018). Hayes, et al. argue that trust is earned through constant supervision of the information given that could be considered credible (Hayes, et al. 2007, 3). Hayes, et al believe a strong sense of communication between journalist and reader can impact the “inextricable interconnection of roles, values and the content itself” (Hayes, et al. 2007, 3). We are seeing the lack of miscommunication between the media, the politicians and the public to impact the quality of journalism.
Hayes et al. acknowledge that the mass media comes with more than enough vehicles for manipulation and diversion which can, unfortunately, be “confused with enlightenment and facts” (Hayes, et al. 2007, 6). When discussing the problems that post-truth poses for Journalism in a society, social media needs to be addressed. Pictures from Wars, riots or tragic accidents go viral via Twitter and Facebook before they’ve even entered the newsroom and sometimes attract more attention. In “Journalism, the Pressures of Verification and Notions of Post-Truth in Civil Society” by Nora Martin, she argues that Journalists face the pressure to verify and have a concrete story and the pressure to verify in the constant daily news cycle (Martin 2007, 45). Now it seems like anybody can “do” Journalism, with a power shift from ‘journalist as gatekeeper’ to the citizen as editor (Martin 2007, 43). We are seeing more blogs and twitter citizen Journalism who don’t share the same Journalistic ethical practices as a trained Journalist, such as strong devotion to seeking the truth. Here we see Martin discuss the problems that social media provides for journalism and how difficult it can be to control the spread of unchecked facts due to the fast-paced nature of social media. She believes the answer to news reporting in this post-truth era is critical thinking and argues that due to the overindulgence of information available to us with “questionable authority and quality” is what allows for the spread of misinformation (Martin 2007, 50). Hayes, et al. stress that journalists should be “professionally dedicated to the seeking of truth” but in this ‘post-truth- era we are seeing major breaches of journalistic ethical practices that are being violated (Hayes, et al. 2007, 7). Hayes et al. argue that accountability is one way to offer transparency to create credibility and therefore mutual trust which is what people seek the most in news reporting (Hayes, et al. 2007). They argue that journalists are more now so than ever are willingly showing where their enforcement comes from and this then creates the “unbound and interconnected nature that gives journalists an unprecedented opportunity to build credibility through transparent information” (Hayes, et al. 2007, 17).
Two recent events that reinforce the existence of obdurate ‘post-truth’ in our society where Brexit and the 2016 US Presidential Election. Postmodernism follows the ideologies that there is no such thing as an objective street that all facts are interpreted and that all knowledge is just someone’s narrative and according to Mitchell Stephens in “We’re All Postmodern Now” argues had not only competed with journalism but “threatens to rake over journalism” (Stephens 2005, 61). In “Are we seeing the rise of the postmodern politician?” a short film directed and produced by Ed Brown, he argues all the ways in which Trump can be identified as a Postmodernist. Trump spreads these lies in order to bend the truth and back the idea that there is no evidence of objective truth at all. Peter McKnight, a political journalist, said in response to the Trump administration’s adoption of the postmodernist thinking, that we might have to “forget about the facts the falsehood, after all, if you don’t tell the truth then you can’t tell a lie either”(Jan 18, 2017). During the campaign, it became clear that Trump’s strategy was to revoke Journalist’s press credentials and denying them access to events if they had published articles painting him in a negative light and ones that he didn’t approve. Displayed here is a core principle of journalistic practices, journalists voicing criticism, holding powers to account and creating a critically minded citizenry. This poses a problem for Journalists, how can they report on the news if they are being closed off from it. In “Journalism and Democracy” Brian McNair argues that ‘spin’ is just a modern development of old-age political persuasion. He argues that we are starting to see more and more this extensive integration of news-management techniques into governing and are causing “ethical lapses and resource constraints”, that undermines independent and critical journalism (McNair, 2002, 178). This impacts discourse within the public sphere and in shaping the public opinion.
In a ‘post-truth- era the practice of truthfulness in Journalism poses itself as an implication because people don’t seem to be concerned about facts and Journalist have to now find a way to push through that barrier and make them see the truth. In “The Role of Journalist and the Performance of Journalism: Ethical Lessons From ‘‘Fake’’ News (Seriously)” by Sarah Borden and Chad tew, they discuss that role of a journalist is intertwined with expectations regarding what things we should have accomplished and how we go about doing that while holding that to what kind of standard (Borden & Tew 2007, 301). When journalists present news in a way that distorts the truth, their performance is at odds with the commitment to truthfulness that their role substantively requires (Borden & Tew 2007, 302). Here we see when the performance of a role does not ‘‘live up to’’ the moral commitments of that role, the result is a kind of moral incoherence. They argue that journalists have become “slaves” to their sources and in doing so journalists can regurgitate official pronouncements that distort or hide the true information (Borden & Tew 2007, 305). Journalists’ needs to take on a more participants role and share their sources with the Public. They express the greater need in this ‘post-truth’ era for journalists to step away from “objectivity conventions and critique its pitfalls” (Borden & Tew 2007, 305).
The Boston Globe showed us how this switch to empathy instead of cold objective news could positively impact change. For years Journalists have produced polite opinion pieces demanding change and these institutions they would keep the opinion pieces out of the newsroom in order to reject bias and to maintain objectivity. On June 16th, 2016, The Boston Globe proposed a radical change and brought both opinion journalist and news journalist together to create a frontpage lead on gun control across America. This showed that the Globe was willing to collide two very opposing sides of journalism in order to reach politicians and the public in ways that they can’t tune out and forget about. Journalists are taught that our role in this ‘post-truth’ era is to tell the truth, so that the powerful will be held accountable. Thomas Hanitzsch discusses, in “Professional Identity and roles of a journalist”, the idea of “journalistic intervention”, which is where a journalist reports using their own words and life scenarios in order to divide the news into three dimensions that Hanitzsch calls interventionism, power distance, and market orientation (Hanitzsch, 2017). Essentially, journalistic intervention allows for disintermediation and the rise of de-democratization in the media which has more positive than negative outcomes and allows for a journalist to have an outlet for moral outrage. Journalists need to rediscover their routes and get back in touch with empathy storytelling which can be difficult considering the need for factual unbiased reporting during the ‘post-truth’ era.
In conclusion, the role of journalists in this ‘post-truth’ era is to separate fiction from facts, to hold the powerful accountable and to provide honest, reliable coverage of events. The ‘post-truth’ poses problems facing a journalist and their role in society through the fast online nature of social media, the spread of misinformation and different political agendas. Commitment to the truth and transparency are a necessity for Journalistic works. While Journalists are impacted by the limiting and constricting aspects of ‘post-truth’ that pose a threat for ethical practices; Journalists can contribute to public discourse by supplying factual, credible and important information which is important and needed more than ever in this post-truth era.
Bibliography
- Ogden, Rollo (1913). Journalism and The Public Opinion. The American Political Science Review Vol. 7 (No. 1), pp.194-200.
- Hayes, A. S., Singer, J. B., and Ceppos, J. (2007). Shifting Roles, Enduring Values: The credible journalist in a digital age. Journal of Mass Media Ethics Vol 22 (No.4), pp. 262-279.
- Are we seeing the rise of the postmodern politician?. Directed and Produced by Ed Brown. Animation by Aslan Livingstone-Ra. BBC, 2017.
- L. Borden,Sandra. Tew, Chad. (2007). The Role of Journalist and the Performance of Journalism: Ethical Lessons From ‘‘Fake’’ News (Seriously). Journal of Mass Media Ethics, 22(4), pp. 300–314.
- McNair, Brian. (2002). Journalism and Democracy: An Evaluation of the Political Public Sphere. Taylor & Francis, pp 65-66
- McKnight, Peter (2017). Trump as postmodernist: Truth no longer bound by facts. JANUARY 28.
- Stephens, Mitchell (2005). We’re All Postmodern Now: Even journalists have realized that facts don’t always add up to the truth. Columbia Journalism Review. pp. 60-64.
- Martin, Nora (2017). Journalism, the Pressures of Verification and Notions of Post-Truth in Civil Society. Cosmopolitan Civil Societies: An Interdisciplinary Journal . Vol. 9, No. 2. Pp.42 -56.
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