Missing the Plot

readers. This is also the basic social responsibility the media should take on. However, this ingredient is intentionally missing among some media outlets when talking about selected topics happening within or outside their own borders. As a result, it’s natural for the Chinese public to automatically link some Western media that had lost their credibility with fake news, a connotation which probably also holds up among other readers.

The media are obligated to deliver mainstream values and depict events via objective wording, helping the public better understand what’s going on in a bid to push forward social progress on the whole. However, some Western media seemingly prefer to deliver disarrayed values under the “freedom of press” cloak.

Moreover, many outlets appear to be extremely interested in channeling the more negative news narrative, such as conflict and turmoil, believing that only these topics will attract more readers. Guided by this attitude, they begin to fabricate conflict-inspired stories and forge negativity when there is none to be found, deliberately turning a blind eye to any positive headlines. By doing so, their accounts are not only presenting a lack of moral and social responsibility, but might even border on the illegal.

No media should spread fake news just to increase readership or just because of prejudice. They’re missing the point. The media are a key driver, pushing society forward, and thus are supposed to abide by the bottom line of the profession. Public trust is won by the media’s accurate, all-round and objective broadcasting of news. Objectivity is the iron law of the press.