Watching the United States election unfold should send an important message to mainstream media – the public has lost faith in the fourth estate.
It’s not surprising since much of the media nowadays has devolved from providers of news to infotainment. Sensationalism has become the norm in order to drive clicks, views and likes. In part, the shift is an effort to hook the interest of a public that has become increasingly disassociated and inattentive in a technology-led world where information is seemingly instantaneous.
In doing so, the media has fallen away from its primary purposes – to inform and to hold government to account – and is now attempting to be an institution of influence. That has backfired. No matter how much the media tried to discredit Donald Trump for many of the extreme things he said during his campaign, it had little affect on the public at large. That is a testament to the fact so few are still listening.
In trying to influence opinion instead of informing it, the mainstream media has abandoned the principles on which it was built and has become as partisan as the politics that have proven so divisive over the years.
It has not gone unnoticed. People have turned away en masse from mainstream sources of information in search of alternative and “more trusted” sources.
Who can blame them when media outlets hire pundits and “experts” to speak from a script; or when they choose to endorse one political candidate over another; or when articles are so blatantly one-sided they insult the intelligence of the reader or listener?
As a result, people are consuming “information” from sources that align with their beliefs driving an increasing number of people to their confirmation bias echo chambers.
It as also led to a very dangerous world of misinformation. People no longer know whom to trust for their news and have turned away from the sources that used to separate fact from fiction.
Now, studies show that 40 per cent of people get their news from Facebook. Unfortunately, Facebook is laden with false news, comments from paid trolls and partisan supporters. People using it and other social media platforms are also not consuming that information responsibly and conspiracy theories and all out lies are being accepted as truths and spread like cancer.
This is disturbing in what should be the age of information and the media must shoulder much of the blame. Losing the people’s trust has allowed people with no training and no regard for media ethics or the sanctity of truth to take a foothold. In many cases these people are self-serving, propaganda machines or so terribly amateurish they further degrade the reputation of what was once a respected industry.
It is time for media to step back, take a look in the mirror and stop playing the popularity game. It is time to stop vying for a spot at the high school lunch table, and graduate back to a level of sophistication and respect.
For that to happen, it must once again embrace its responsibility as an objective source of information and stop stooping to the level of social media.
