Truth is What Happens to News: On journalism, fake news, and post-truth.
From Digital Culture & Society
Waisbord, S. (2018). Truth is What Happens to News: On journalism, fake news, and post-truth. Journalism Studies (London, England), 19(13), 1866–1878.
https://doi.org/10.1080/1461670X.2018.1492881
Contents |
[edit] Context:
Waisbord’s article discusses fake news and journalism and questions if society has moved into a post-truth era and what that may mean. Discussion revolves around how post-truth challenges the traditional role of journalism as fact-based information and reasoned arguments. This article fits into the broader issue of disinformation as it explores how fake news has contested the traditional source of information, journalism. This article also questions how this may suggest personal beliefs are able to produce more sway in public opinion compared to evidence-based journalism. In a wider spectrum, this article raises concerns about how post-truth will affect the journalism industry and accentuates the pressing need to address this growing concern. The article elaborates on the depleting trust in traditional information sources and considers the potential ramifications of subjective belief will have on society.
[edit] Overview:
The author deeply discusses truth and what that means both for news, journalism and in a post-truth era. Waisbord acknowledges that journalism once claimed a special position and power to determine truth and such claims are harder to defend today. From this, the author goes on to suggest that social media platforms and unconventional news organizations do not uphold truth to the same standard as traditional journalism which is where misinformation and fake news appear. Post-truth is developed because of the openness of platforms allowing any individual to share their opinions unfiltered or researched. Informative content was originally consumed through fact-based research completed by journalists and then published. Now, there are far fewer steps involved to produce content to be consumed and that is often personal-belief driven which is where society enters post-truth ideas. After this groundwork, Waisbord suggests that the way to combat fake news is through promoting critical reasoning and news literacy and demanding digital giants to be responsible and accountable for the role they play. However, Waisbord believes that these solutions are insufficient to address the new challenges for public communication.
[edit] Strengths and Weaknesses:
The strength of this article is the thorough exploration of post-truth and how that has shaped the journalism industry. Waisbord spends a lot of time discussing what post-truth is and how this has started to affect journalism. The article talks about how personal beliefs have begun to hold more value than truth when it comes to forming informed opinions. Examining the relationship between growing technologies and the openness of platforms is important to understand as this is how post-truth has taken effect. When individuals are able to find articles that support their uninformed opinions they do not feel the need to continue researching. This strengthens the article because it establishes how the root issue of fake news and the spread of disinformation comes from a lack of critical reasoning and news literacy skills.
A weakness of this article is that although Waisbord offers solutions to the problem they do not believe that such solutions are enough to solve it. This seems to leave the article with an unsatisfying ending as it seems as though there is no real way to combat fake news and disinformation and that is just how society will operate going forward. This could however be correct as it seems as though unless individuals are willing to work on their own critical reasoning and news literacy skills they will be submissive to disinformation. Although pessimistic it is an accurate representation of the path society is heading down if news literacy skills are not strengthened.
[edit] Assessment:
Waisbord’s article serves as a comprehensive exploration of disinformation, journalism and the emergence of a post-truth era. The article serves as a call to action for individuals to strengthen their critical reasoning and news literacy skills or fall victim to disinformation and fake news. The article provides an in-depth scope into how post-truth has been able to rise in today’s society and challenge traditional informative practices such as journalism. Waisbord suggests that post-truth is rising at such rates that journalism is suffering the consequences of an ill-informed audience. Concluding on a cynical note, Waisbord believes that the way to fight against disinformation spread is an educated population; however, individuals are unlikely to take this responsibility on themselves.
Ca19sp 17:16, 10 December 2023 (EST)
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