TRUTH, JOURNALISM, AND DISINFORMATION IN THE AGE OF SOCIAL MEDIA
The Pacific Council recently hosted a webcast discussion on battling disinformation and reporting the news in an atmosphere of mistrust featuring journalist Jessica Yellin, former CNN Chief White House Correspondent, founder of #NewsNotNoise, and author of Savage News.
Here are takeaways from the discussion:
“The fact that we’ve accelerated to this point where so many people get their news from sources that already share their point of view and sometimes aren’t credible at all, that’s probably not going away,” she said in response to a question about whether public trust in the media has been irreparably damaged. “What Facebook has done with politics and news is something that can be regulated. The mistrust the public has because Trump calls us fake news can be remedied when there’s a president, Democrat or Republican, who doesn’t do that.”
“I take issue with this concept that we used to have objectivity and we moved away from it,” she said. “You don’t need to have this false objectivity, we need to get comfortable with points of view in our news but being more transparency about what they are.”
“I started #NewsNotNoise [available @JessicaYellin on Instagram] because I saw that there was this audience of people who don’t know what’s a credible news source, what to believe, and they’re overwhelmed by all that noise that’s coming at them. If you find a reporter you like and trust, follow them on social media and follow the people they repost.”
“Social media companies have not done enough to combat disinformation on their platforms,” she said. “We’re in trouble. This is a crisis. They need to act, but it’s evident they’re not going to self-regulate. They need to be regulated the way media companies are. The fact they’ve been so slow to change means they’ll end up being regulated, because they’ve enraged Democrats and Republicans.”
“It’s not the media’s fault that the news is dark and grim, it’s your fault if you’re not turning it off sometimes,” she said. “For people who find themselves depressed by the amount of news they’re consuming, I recommend you: 1) set a time a day that you check the news, 2) decide in advance how long you’ll spend reading the news, 3) go to sources you trust, 4) turn off notifications, and 5) put down your phone when you’re done and reconnect with yourself.”
WATCH THE FULL CONVERSATION BELOW:
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The views and opinions expressed here are those of the speaker and do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of the Pacific Council.
