Saturday September 28 was World News Day, but the date was more a somber reminder rather than a day for celebration.
The global initiative seeks to “draw public attention to the role that journalists play in providing trustworthy news and information that serves citizens and democracy,” according to the World Editors Forum, the Canadian Journalism Foundation, and Daily Maverick’s Project Continuum.
The date is intended to occasion reflections about how the profession is conducted, how its practitioners navigate the challenges that face them, and what the future looks like for the industry given the changing times.
In 2022, UNESCO said that the business model of the news media is “broken.”
And then, the 2024 Digital News Report of the Reuters Institute said platforms like Facebook are now explicitly deprioritizing news and political content. As a result, traffic from these social sites to news sites has dropped, Only 17 percent of people across 20 wealthy countries subscribed to news online last year. There have been layoffs, closures, and other cuts in news organizations across the world.
Just four in 10 respondents said they trusted news most of the time, as young people rely more on influencers and content creators than on newspapers. Artificial intelligence’s ability to create text and images that could easily fool an unsuspecting media consumer.
And then, in some parts of the world, journalists are jailed, killed, and attacked. According to Agence France Presse, some 584 journalists are now in prison because of the work they do.
These are global trends mirrored by our own experiences in the Philippines. The changing business model of news organizations has spared no one and has driven smaller outfits out of business. Economic constraints compel some journalists to cross ethical lines. They face very real danger, in the physical world and cyberspace, hounded by those who stand to lose from their credible reporting. Often, too, the plight of reporters in the provinces are sidelined just because they are not heard to begin with. Worse, there are political leaders who feel entitled to positive coverage and disregard the press’ inherent watchdog function. They will stop at nothing to silence those who dare put them in a bad light.
The news media stand to lose much in an age dominated by engagement-driven content. Engagement in itself is good because of the possibility to reach as many people as possible. But other values such as relevance and accuracy are necessary companions so that we can ensure that the public we serve are not only entertained, but are sufficiently informed and empowered to think critically and make sound democratic decisions.
This year’s World News Day is, among others, an opportunity for introspection.
