If everything is digital today is it
reliable?
Today's media environment seems to be complicating matters. We know that
almost everything we touch in the digital world, that someone somewhere can see
our fingerprints on what we have accessed.
Some media groups are so worried about being spied on that they document
their investigations on computers that are not connected to the internet, or in
fact, some create their content on typewriters. Certain media outlets
tell people to only submit stories and tip-offs through snail-mail and will not
speak to informers or whistle-blowers over any sort of phone.
Are they paranoid? Not in the least. If you've seen the stories from
Australia and around the world of governments, criminal and business agencies
tracking, finding and harassing, charging and killing journalists, you'll
know they are not paranoid.
With the click of a mouse button, anyone can put anything out across the
world today. That doesn't mean that people are going to see it or can find it,
but the more outrageous it is, the better chance it has of being found.
Where does all this lead to for the consumer? In fact, is the idea of
the traditional audience/consumer for media information obsolete now?
Society is dramatically different today than it was 20 years ago. Many
traditional businesses and social models have been disrupted, broken and some
have even disappeared. Everyone is talking at everyone else, and who is to be
trusted?
The way that technology has advanced and the public's consumption of media has changed, some are even
predicting that written content will disappear in the future; when that is, no
one is game enough to state.
In one of my journalism classes, the question was asked, who has a
traditional TV in their house? Everyone in the class put their hand up; there
were more than 50 students. But then, the teacher asked, who does not watch
that TV? About 30% of the students put their hands up. They were getting their
news and entertainment on their computers, tablets, and phones.
Our digital news is vastly different from what happens on TV, radio and
in print. Is digital news reliable? No, it is not. It cannot be trusted.
Someone with an axe to grind, a group with an untested view and even
traditional media outlets are pushing out fake, incorrect and unreliable news.
It's no wonder people are predicting the death of the written word and
traditional media when for the sake of getting the most hits, people are
publishing crap.
Digital media is measured and created on how many people are clicking stories.
They are not measuring audience engagement, interaction or reactions to stories
other than where and how many times stories are shared.
But, there are groups who are fighting against all the noise of
misinformation and outright lies. It looks like that almost nothing you read or
see online can be trusted, and I'm of the opinion that today, that is the only
thing that can be trusted. Don't trust anything you read, hear or see online.
Because the chances are, someone has manipulated it to gain some benefit for
themselves.
Unless you fact-check and cross-check everything I have just written, you
cannot know what I'm saying is true.
