Journalism in the fight of its life
Ispent some time in the United States last year. terminal media junkie. I find it fascinating to buy the local newspapers, listen to the local radio stations and watch TV in the States. Fascinating and scary. I was particularly scared to find the CNN anchorman Anderson Cooper reacting to Donald Trump at a presidential primary debate in New Hampshire.
The video which shows Cooper speaking immediately after the event and saying “that was President Donald J Trump ripping us a new asshole here on CNN’s live presidential town hall. Thank you for watching”.
It was as perfect as it was shocking. It went viral on social media. And it was 100% porkies. A falsehood made up by Trump himself.
Trump’s campaign team applied generative AI to a bunch of existing video clips of Cooper previously speaking about Trump (albeit in more measured tones) to create a deepfake video.
They then threw money at it across social media outlets and everyone lapped it up and shared the hell out of it. While we’ve all heard of fake news, I really wasn’t ready for the preponderance of it.
Or the shift in the way people consume news. Statista data shows that over half the people in OECD countries consume news primarily through social media, much of that being via their phone. In many places that’s now as high as 70%. Meanwhile a study by Indiana University found 23% of social media users report they knowingly spread false news.
There are three distinctions between the news found on social media and traditional journalism. The first is no quality control process on content creation. The second is free distribution for anyone. The third is that social media presents news in a feed that is curated for the individual.
The feed curation algorithm typically presents news from friends, followers, past activity and advertisers who pay money to influence the individual. So you get fed stuff that you agree with or that is specifically designed to influence your behaviour.
All of this came to mind this week with the news that Newshub will be closed in June.
Newshub evolved out of the old TV3 News service that distributed content via TV3 Network and MediaWorks radio stations. Consequently MediaWorks sold Newshub in 2020 to Warner Bros Discovery, who are behind the proposed shut down. The proposal would see Newshub’s 300 person news gathering, content creation and multi-media team ceasing operations in June.
This would have chilling consequences for any show that uses its content. Shows that include the 6pm news, the AM Show, The Block NZ and the excellent Paddy Gower Has Issues.
It’s decimating for the staff who work there, but its even more decimating for media diversity and our democratic processes.
Newshub and its predecessor introduced many innovations into news media practices including the one hour 6pm network news, merging radio and television in the mornings and launching what was arguably New Zealand’s first fully integrated television, online and radio newsroom. Meanwhile, the unconventional late night show Nightline introduced New Zealand to gonzo journalism and anarchic journalists like Belinda Todd, Duncan Garner and Paddy Gower. And enriched the media ecosystem in doing so.
It also pursued a different editorial policy from the other national news networks. And while I don’t always agree with their interpretations, their very presence makes the mixed media cocktail more potent. Losing this diversity is also bad news for New Zealand’s democratic processes. In their all too brief 300 year history, liberal democracies have enjoyed a symbiotic relationship with a competitive media market.
Citizens need to be able to access a wide range of views about politics, economics and society in order to form their own opinions about what’s happening. And then to be empowered to participate in the political process in a meaningful way be it though voting, protesting, organising or supporting.
There are effectively five full-service national news outlets in Aotearoa – Stuff, NZME, TVNZ, RNZ and Newshub. All of whom have been taking body blows from technology, economics, changing consumer behaviour and the global digital media giants slipping between the cracks of regulation.
Make no mistake. Journalism is in a fight for its life with the largest media companies the world has ever seen. They don’t call them the Fangs (Facebook Amazon, Netflix, Google and Spotify) for nothing. These players are ripping traditional media and professional journalism to shreds. Aided by their cavalier approach to taxation, copyright and privacy.
In one fell swoop the end of Newshub means Aotearoa’s media has lost 20% of its diversity. If we were to lose another it would be unthinkable.