Upholding Journalistic Values

With rapid advancement in media technology, the media industry has gone through a sea change globally over the years. Because of sweeping changes in the media dynamics in no time, the digital media has emerged extensively, giving rise to a very challenging situation for the traditional media like newspapers, radios, and televisions. The traditional or old media had a dominant role in the global media landscape before the advent of the digital era. They used to serve as the primary source of news and entertainment. These media are based on a top-down communication model. In these media outlets, media professionals are involved in producing information, and that information is distributed to a local or national audience. As these media are guided by certain rules and adopt professional editorial processes, they are regarded as more credible than the digital media.

Digital media

The digital media are newer online mediums. They include social media, blogs, and emails, among others. It needs no mention that these media have changed the way information is created, shared, and consumed globally. These digital communication channels started emerging with the internet. Because they are accessible worldwide, their influence is much higher than that of the traditional media. In such media, consumers not only consume content, but they can also create and post their own content. The new media are more interactive because the audience can post comments and share posts. They, however, can be very effective in disseminating news and views. As it is not easy for the authorities to monitor and control the digital media, there are also higher chances for such media to be a tool to disseminate misinformation and disinformation.

Digital media has developed at a faster pace even in Nepal with the expansion of the internet services. These media have both pros and cons. To make their content viral, some digital media are often found uploading fake news and information. As negative news sells more than the factual one, they opt for disseminating biased news. Such news and information can mislead a society like ours where media literacy is low.

What is more worrisome is that there has been a growing tendency among the digital media outlets and social media platforms to misuse artificial intelligence (AI) tools like deepfake. Authorities have found it tricky to deal with this problem. Oftentimes, the Press Council Nepal issues warnings against the possible threats of the abuse of digital media. Despite such efforts, numerous digital media are seen as involved in assassinating the characters of the people belonging to various walks of life.

One of the glaring examples of the misuse of AI tools in Nepal was the transmission of a fictitious audio titled ‘The Dark Files’ by Sidhakura.com. Through that audio that was published in April, the Nepali news portal had attempted to defame the judiciary. Recently, the Supreme Court (SC) has issued its verdict on the case, considering it as a contempt of court. The SC has penalised the individuals involved in publishing that material. This sort of abuse of AI technology is really a matter of serious concern.

According to the Nepal Media Users’ Survey-2021 that was conducted by the Centre for Media Research, about 83 per cent participants said that social media, which is a component of the new media, was very influential in the country. However, 48 per cent of them said that fake information was found on YouTube, while 36.3 per cent said that the same was available on X (formerly Twitter) and 30 per cent viewed that such information was found in websites. This raises questions about the trustworthiness and the quality of the content of the digital media. However, the traditional media are also not totally free from this anomaly.

Another study shows that advertisers have also started shifting towards digital media, especially social networking sites, from the traditional media outlets owing to a massive rise in the number of users using social media. Google, Meta, and other social media rarely produce content, but they are found taking away advertisements from the content-generating media such as newspapers, radios, and televisions. No doubt, advertising revenue is the lifeblood of all the news organisations. Google and Meta are believed to have a 50 per cent share in the global advertisement market. When news organisations fail to generate revenue, they are sure to reel from a serious financial problem. This scenario speaks volumes about the growing challenges facing the traditional media. From this, it can also be predicted what the future media market, media content, and its quality and credibility would be like.

Google has been assisting news media in producing content. Under the Google News Initiative, Google gave nearly US$ 300 million to more than 5000 news outlets. In 2020, Google forged partnerships with over 200 media houses based in Europe, South America, and Australia. That partnership is being expanded globally. When the traditional media outlets are bound to sell their contents to digital platforms for their survival, they may become news agencies partially.

Factual information

The situation of the traditional media in Nepal also might turn worse due to financial problems. Although Nepal’s economy is very small, the country possesses a large number of media outlets. Their numbers are increasing annually. Numerous print media have folded up across the country over the past several years since they failed to sustain financially. To cope with this adverse situation, the traditional media also must focus on making their content technology-friendly to increase their readership base. Even amidst such a mushrooming growth in the digital media, there is still a need for professional journalism to disseminate the factual information. Maintaining transparency, accountability, verifying information, and abiding by ethical values are always necessary for responsible journalism to flourish.

(The author is a former deputy executive editor of this daily.)