What is the role of media in a healthy democracy? How is this role impacted by social media and fake news?
My speech at the Jersey Policy Forum debate
On the 27 April 2018 JEP editor Andy Sibcy, Head of Communications Unit, Chief Minister’s Office, States of Jersey Cathy Keir, editor of Bailiwick James Filleul and Ollie Taylor, representing as editor of Nine by Five Media, all gave their views regarding the above questions put forward by the think-tank Jersey Policy Forum. This was Ollie Taylor’s speech to the forum.
First of all thank you for inviting me to speak here today Gailina and the Jersey Policy Form, it’s also a pleasure and privilege to speak amongst such well established media veterans. So what is the role of media in a healthy democracy? Well, idealistically speaking, I would say it is to ensure that the public is appropriately informed, so that they can make the best decisions in their own interests, rather than someone else’s. But most importantly the role of media in a healthy democracy is to hold power to account.
As multiple award winning journalist John Pilger said: “Always look for the truth from the ground up, rarely from the top down. Journalists are never really journalists if they are agents of power, no matter how they disguise that role. Real Journalists are agents of people.”
Sadly today, I do not think this is the reality or that we are living in a healthy democracy, which is why social media plays such an important role in our society. Far from holding power to account, today’s mainstream media is power, is owned by power, and therefore predominantly represents the interests of power.
This assertion was well evidenced in Noam Chomsky and Ed Herman’s 1988 book: ‘Manufacturing Consent: The Political Economy of the Mass Media’ which unequivocally demonstrated that media corporations are effective and powerful ideological institutions that carry out a system-supportive propaganda function, by reliance on market forces, internalised assumptions, and self-censorship, all without the need for overt coercion.
This point was recently made by Guardian columnist Owen Jones who tweeted: ‘The main thing I’ve learned from working in the British media is that much of it is a cult. Afflicted by a suffocating groupthink, intolerant of critics, hounds internal dissenters, full of people who made it because of connections and/or personal background rather than merit.’ For saying this, he was exposed to a barrage of attacks from journalists themselves, only reinforcing his point.
And according to influential non-profit organisation Reporters Without Borders in their latest report, published only days ago, the UK is now among the worst in Western Europe for freedom of press after a ‘staggering decline’.
As mainstream media spends time demonising refugees, immigrants and benefit claimants, social media, by its very democratic nature, has risen to provide an alternative voice and platform to the marginalised, who previously would of been unable to compete with such massive media institutions.
‘Fake news’ is simply an updated term for misinformation, now being used by the powerful to silence dissent, most notably by President Donald Trump. No doubt that by everyone having a platform today, the spread of misinformation has naturally become ubiquitous, and this must be challenged.
But what I believe is the greater threat, is that corporations are taking control of the democratic nature of the internet and defining what is acceptable discourse.
Powerful, unregulated, social media companies such as Facebook, Twitter and Google are cracking down on what they determine to be fake news, adjusting their algorithms to control what we see and have access to.
It is clear that in order to have a healthy democracy we need to ensure that our media, in all its forms, represent the interests of all of society, and not just those of a media elite, their billionaire owners and their corporate advertisers. Unless this happens, all news media organisations will continue to be under threat, along with our democracy. Thank you.
