I’m not afraid of bad people, there are few enough of them. I’m afraid of bad information — what decent people can become when they consume it.
As much as the ‘fake news’ bandits try to steal or hide the truth, it is indeed ‘out there.’ It has just become harder to find.
Sadly, being in love with the truth can sometimes feel like being in love with the past — like you’re a stamp collector or a trainspotter, more at home in the 1940s than today.
I felt this way on a trip I took recently. Galloping out of apocalyptic rain and pulling the door of his van shut behind me, a taxi driver in Wexford was quick to get into the topic of how Ireland ‘should look after its own’.’ Expecting easy agreement, he was irritated when I suggested people escaping war and famine are human too.
This young man, a father, husband, son, seemed like a good guy. I could hear his kindness when he answered the phone to an elderly neighbour looking for a lift, addressing her as ‘Mrs Riley,’ with a lovely deference.
“I don’t buy newspapers or watch the news anymore,” he told me. “Sure, you can get everything on social media now anyway. The only time I’d pick up a paper is when I visit my parents. They might have the or something.” The folded newspaper in my bag, even the subscriptions on my phone, suddenly seemed to sag under the weight of extinction, about as ‘on trend’ as a Victorian bustle.
Like too many, the man had learned to disregard researched local, regional, and national information over social media posts and clickbait.
He’s not alone. I know plenty of people, well-educated people with money, who refuse to pay a subscription for well-researched papers like this one. Some will even use paywall removers, ignoring the impact they inevitably have on the profession of journalism, here and abroad. With a single link, and daily, they feel no guilt unlocking — damaging the ecosystem of good, reliable information as they go.
There are others who are suffering from ‘News fatigue,’ and for that I have more sympathy.
People treat the arts similarly. They have the money to pay but choose to stream films and television shows illegally, with little regard for writers, low-paid support cast, and technicians involved in their production. Dodgy boxes have become the norm not the exception. The boxes are dodgy, not us, right? I find it difficult to listen to people with a full education behind them, and a healthy bank balance, sharing an opinion about a film they illegally downloaded (stole) the night before.
We have learned, as Oscar Wilde said, to “know the price of everything and the value of nothing.”
Bob Hughes, Executive Director of Local Ireland, which represents regional news publishers around the country, explained the problem with newspapers for me this week.
“Their key challenge is revenue — with advertising having shifted away from so-called traditional media to the platform giants, and circulation sales of the printed newspaper under pressure.”
Before Facebook and Meta, our papers were funded by advertising, but big tech has gobbled that up, whilst circulating misinformation and disinformation at the same time. Local news has been hit hardest, with people looking to social media rather than their local news sources for information.
This is global — the death of the newsroom. Even the world’s leading papers are relying on donations to protect independent, investigative journalism. The messy politics in America, arguably, is directly linked to the deterioration of the media there — particularly the collapse of local news. Americans don’t buy their local papers anymore — they get their news online and through partisan channels like Fox.
The News Media Bargaining Code in Australia offers hope to traditional platforms. The law provides a framework for publishers to negotiate payments from big online players, like Facebook, for use of their content. Other countries are following Australia’s lead, but news brands still need readers, and particularly local readers, to keep running.
Mr Hughes made me feel better about the situation in Ireland than I had been feeling, however.
“Thanks to their digital channels, local newspapers have never had so many readers and have never been more relevant to their communities,” he assured me.
Well done, us! Irish people clearly place more value in accurate, verifiable information than I had been thinking on my Wexford trip — but we are not out of the woods yet.
“It is essential that Government provides independent support for local media because it plays a vital role in our democracy and in the administration of justice, as well as helping define our local identities,” Bob Hughes said.
Seventeen paid-for weekly newspapers closed in Ireland over the last 15 years. “We don’t want to see any more going the same way,” he added.
I felt proud and heartened to hear that Irish people are still reading, and paying to read healthy, researched information. It means we value it.
We must absolutely protect our public broadcaster too. Sure, it’s imperfect, but it plays a key role in keeping us informed. It also relies on local journalists for accuracy and for dependable contacts. There is a network of humans, professionals, behind the news. Local and national radio relies on print journalism. Print journalism is the bedrock of everything else.
Following my trip, and before I contacted Bob Hughes, I was upset by a video that went viral about our new Social Personal and Health Education curriculum, full of disinformation, and spread with accusations against hard-working professionals, seeking to protect young people in their care.
I shudder to give them any attention at all but in recent weeks, a group called The Natural Women’s Council released the video interview with former SPHE Teacher Mary Creedon, who claims to be a ‘whistle-blower’. SPHE stands for Social, Personal and Health Education. I teach it myself so I know the new curriculum well. It’s excellent, objectively excellent.
The YouTube video is laden with disinformation, (intentionally false information) about what went on during the course. Resources that were shared only to inform the adult professionals in the room, are presented by Mary Creedon as teaching resources for casual use in the classroom.
Predictably, the Natural Women’s Council continue on X without a worry or concern.
Although the Department of Education identified the video as spreading disinformation, the people behind it are under no legal obligation to retract anything, as a paper would be. That’s the difference: newspapers value the truth; they seek it out — bad actors on social media are entirely different. It is not a profession for them; it is a passion project, a hobby, or worse.
Disinformation thrives online but I’m confident, having listened to Bob Hughes, that we’ve enough cop on to thwart it if we continue to work together to shut it down through traditional media.
This is why we must continue to support our local and regional news, taking personal responsibility to stay informed and ahead of the tripe online. The truth will never go out of fashion if we continue to value it — continue to recognise it as a necessity, not a luxury.
