Can Instagram be a Legitimate News Source for Us?
The short answer is yes, however, news consumers including ourselves must also hold our own responsibility to preserve trust in the news media.
It is safe to say that up until today, I have spent the majority of 2021 writing my thesis project for my Master’s programme in Media and Communication Studies in the specialisation of Digital Media and Society at Uppsala University. The thesis focuses on the question of how Narasi Newsroom, a news outlet that uses social media to produce news, maintains journalistic legitimacy and how do Instagram users find credible and trustworthy news in light of the COVID-19 infodemic—a term coined by the WHO where they define:
An infodemic is an overabundance of information, both online and offline. It includes deliberate attempts to disseminate wrong information to undermine the public health response and advance alternative agendas of groups or individuals. (WHO, 2020)
In the 2020 Reuters Institute Digital News Report, it was found that the trend of Instagram as a news source started to become apparent, taking over Twitter from being the leading social media network for news consumption (Newman, 2020). One of the reasons for this trend is due to the visual aspect of Instagram, which makes it easier to consume news. Even so, the quality of news credibility and journalistic legitimacy is criticised and trust in the news is challenged due to news sensationalism and clickbait titles in driving engagement metrics. Consequently, this amplifies the concern of the COVID-19 infodemic, as the circulation of misinformation overwhelms citizens.
Yet, in the midst of scepticism, there is hope from Narasi Newsroom.
Narasi Newsroom is a news outlet part of the start-up media company, Narasi, which was established in 2017 by Catharina Davy, Dahlia Citra, and Najwa Shihab (Telum Media, n.d.). With Najwa Shihab’s popularity from her previous career in Metro TV and being a prominent national journalist with her renowned ‘Mata Najwa’ show, Narasi grew significantly in the social media realm.
There are over 70 million active Indonesian users on Instagram (Statista, 2020), and with Narasi’s target audience to be Indonesians within the age range of 18–35 years old, the start-up media company recognises Indonesia’s digital audience. By highlighting to cater Indonesian youth as its main audience, Narasi Newsroom aims not merely to inform news, but also in educating citizens to understand the news. This is apparent as Narasi’s principle of journalism originated from Najwa Shihab herself in creating a platform “that goes beyond providing information but also one where people can seek the truth” (Putri, 2020).
With Indonesia’s vast netizens and their ubiquitous lifestyle on online platforms, it paves an understanding of how news consumers navigate information abundance while finding trustworthy news in the COVID-19 infodemic. Not to mention, living in the post-truth era where the factual principles of truth can be non-existent and lead to encouraging ‘alternative facts’ (Illing, 2018), news producers like Narasi Newsroom as well as us as news consumers must take accountability in preserving media trust—even when the future of journalism on Instagram may seem to prioritise engagement metrics.
In the findings of this study, it was found that professional journalism can still be practised in its values of maintaining credibility, particularly in Narasi Newsroom’s strategy of educating the news with credible sources, insight, and knowledge. It is emphasised that the news outlet caters audience by riding the wave in finding out what the audience needs as well as wants in consuming news content. By attempting to ride the wave, balancing the relevancy of news with Instagram analytics and engagement metrics is a way to strengthen journalistic legitimacy, which conversely maintains media trust in being a credible news outlet.
Seemingly, the post-truth era has encouraged news consumers to be more alert in navigating for trustworthy news on Instagram. Although scepticism is still present and Instagram users do recognise how the algorithm considers users’ content preferences, media trust is essentially shaped by the quality of the news outlets—including Narasi Newsroom itself. Therefore, Narasi Newsroom also ingrains the idea for the audience to critically think through their news content in order to be critically aware of how to trust the news.
So, can Instagram be a legitimate news source for us?
To this extent, yes. In the lens of Narasi Newsroom’s innovative approach of balancing journalism values by cooperating with social media logic functions (Dijck & Poell, 2013), it shows an updated practice of journalism on social media platforms, particularly on Instagram. Moreover, media trust and news credibility can be maintained in the post-truth era when both news producers and consumers have a critical stance.
Evidently, it takes two to keep it right.
I’ve recently created a video essay for this article, you are more than welcome to watch it below. :)
This article is a summary of my Master’s thesis on The Instagram News Logic: The Encoding and Decoding of News Credibility on Instagram in the COVID-19 Infodemic in Indonesia. You are most welcome to read the full thesis that can be downloaded and viewed through this link.
