The American presidential election is over. Many are now scrambling to understand the result and pointing to “fake news” as the great culprit. Forget about polling errors or the anger of white, middle-class voters. It appears that fake news, mostly created outside the United States by tech-savvy teenagers well-versed in making money on the internet, is the real reason so many Americans were swayed by Donald Trump’s misinformed populism.
Fake news is, indeed, a serious problem, especially for the social media platforms that profess their inability to control the beast they helped create. The systemic issue regarding fake news is the listless state of the media industry. Torn between entertainment, honest reporting and civic duty, mainstream media organisations have lost their voices. They certainly are not all struggling financially, as some might lead you to believe. Major outlets such as The New York Times and CNN remain in the black, with the latter expected to report records profits next year.
The boom in freelance journalists covering the Middle East over the past five years reveals tensions in the media industry that have created the foundation for fake news and the rise of social media platforms as news aggregators. At the height of the chaos in Egypt in 2011, freelancers from around the world were churning out reports from the streets of Cairo. Given the number of social media platforms, freelancers found new audiences for virtually any conflict they were brave enough to cover. Unfettered by the violence around them, these intrepid but all-too-often inexperienced journalists paid their own way to reach the front lines and covered the news with little more than a smartphone and a laptop.
Traditionally, experienced journalists became war correspondents only after years of training and apprenticeship gained from working inside newsrooms. It wasn’t uncommon for a cub reporter to work their way to foreign correspondence after years in the office learning how news was sourced and written. This system ensured balance, clarity and accuracy in the coverage – at least in theory. The industry no longer functions in the same way.
Part of the reason this model is no longer relevant is how we as an audience consume media. News is increasingly tailored via algorithms to a reader’s Facebook feed or Twitter account. Most people no longer sit down with physical newspapers, and so the element of serendipity of stumbling on a random report is decreased. Many, especially younger people, find stories based on what social media services determine will keep them online and “engaged” longer. In an environment where sensational headlines and stories appeal to the lowest common denominator, it is little wonder fake news is a problem. In this new model, media organisations require fewer reporters in the field (which is an expensive enterprise) and more “editors” who scour the internet for viral material to republish with a new clickbait headline.
That is why industrious freelancers, committed to transparent reporting and cognisant of the narratives they create are more important than ever. There are straightforward solutions to the problem of fake news – such as forcing social media companies to behave more like traditional media companies by abiding by a code of ethics – but the need for savvy freelancers who understand how to use social media to amplify their work is critical.
Take the story of Jesse Rosenfeld as an example of how freelancers can move the industry in the right direction. In Freelancer on the Front Lines, a documentary about his life and work, Rosenfeld travels to the front lines in Palestine, Egypt, Iraq and Turkey to capture the stories he believes we need to read. (Full disclosure: I have worked with Rosenfeld and he has written for The National.)
Rosenfeld doesn’t attempt to conceal his views on the subjects he covers, but he is fully transparent in his reporting style and commitment to rigorous journalistic ethics. As I have written before, the media’s obsession with objectivity allows far too many journalists to forget about transparency and a commitment to facts.
As he says in the documentary, Rosenfeld got into journalism to challenge accepted narratives and encourage people to think differently about the conflicts in the Middle East. He is willing to pay a high price for these values, including travelling to conflict zones in south east Turkey with zero institutional backing. In another scene, alone with his cameraman in Iraq – the director of the documentary, Santiago Bertolino – Rosenfeld encounters the death and destruction left in ISIL’s wake. It makes for a gripping film.
That Rosenfeld went to some of these conflict areas without so much as a commissioned story – instead preferring to sell his work on spec after the fact – is evidence that there are ambitious journalists left in the business. The only difference is that these journalists are now on their own if things go south while on assignment, and they don’t enjoy an expense account.
The crux in reshaping the media industry is how to amplify voices such as Rosenfeld’s that have a clear, informed perspective on events while softening the noise of fake news. As more people turn to Facebook and similar platforms for their news, there is an obvious way to achieve this seemingly impossible task.
Journalists who embrace the freelancer model should establish clarity in their opinions on the conflicts they cover and maintain a strict commitment to fact-based reporting. Free from institutional messages and directives, a new brand of freelancer can theoretically build a profitable audience through the strategic amplification of their work on social media.
The trick is to shift the western media’s obsession with objectivity to a commitment to fact-based and transparent journalism. Social media forces us all to have opinions. The question is whether journalists have the integrity, as Rosenfeld clearly does, to be open about their opinions and how they report their stories. The scourge of fake news can be defeated with transparency in the media. This will become all too important over the next four years with Donald Trump in the White House.
jdana@thenational.ae
