A Thought-Provoking Week for journalists

Estimated reading time: 5 minutes

How do journalists help people understand the significance of news that will take years to transpire?

This was the takeaway question by The Information’s Jessica Lessin, one morning, a few weeks ago.

For some context, The Information writes the kind of news and opinions which can make me get up a few hours earlier. The  question The Information posed, had to do with a court ruling around Apple App Store’s authority over how app developers receive payment.

The judge ruled for Apple to allow developers to link out to other app payment systems, hence avoiding Apple’s 30% tax.

It may not seem like much at a glance, but that’s the thing.

Things were decisively put into motion and have since  gained momentum thanks to  a congressional hearing about 20 months ago.

Events like these seem small, incremental, and inconsequential in the bigger scheme. For example, when one tries to understand the far-reaching impact of Big Tech holding so much market power, a ruling that can help developers deny Big Tech 30% of their app revenue, does not seem important.

But little events like these can all add up over a period of time, into something pretty big and significant.  Things were decisively put into motion and have since  gained momentum thanks to  a congressional hearing about 20 months ago.

The background story – a watershed moment in tech history?

The CEOs of Big Tech companies, Amazon, Facebook, Apple, and Google were called up to testify when realisation dawned that regulations to curtail them were not enough, and the market is in serious need of a more level playing field.

Was the court ruling for Apple, a result of what began at that congressional hearing? Five reform bills were also announced last June, which collectively seem to want to rebalance the market and redistribute Big Tech’s monopoly power.

We don’t know. We don’t know if the reform bills were result of that congressional hearing. Or how effective they are going to be.

This requires much more time for things, events, ruling decisions, and more, to slowly pan out.

So once again, How do journalists help people understand the significance of news that will take years to transpire?

This wasn’t all the questions that the journalist profession had to ponder upon.

During that very same week, an event around digital trust had been organised by the Research Center for Global Cyberspace Governance (RCGCG).

A tale of two super powers

A virtual roundtable about tech decoupling and trust building, also brought up the role of media in building trust in a zero-trust environment

The moderator, Lu Chuan Ying from RCGCG introduced the topic by plainly stating the problem. “We should admit there is lack of trust between the two super powers.

“How do we build trust? I think we also need to go back to the technology, increase our understanding of technology, and admit the unique nature and insecurity of digital technologies right now.”

Lu was referring to how there may be too much attention paid to what politicians say about technologies, instead of engineers and scientists who know better and can explain about insecurity of digital technologies.

A looming challenge for news

FTChinese.com’s Editor-in-Chief, Feng Wang observed that there is a major failure on the part of international media, in helping people find common ground between China and the U.S.

“What should have replaced part of the role of the news media in terms of advancing communication and advancing mutual understanding between peoples, should have been AI and free data flows and algorithms.”

He opined that we have come this far being open in data beyond political and geographical borders, but “…now are are sealing our borders again and it’s very anti-intuitive.”

What should have replaced part of the role of the news media in terms of advancing communication and advancing mutual understanding between peoples, should have been AI and free data flows and algorithms.

He also thought that the media business are finding themselves being given much more power in terms of helping people understand each other.

“And I think there is a major failure going on in the media industry, the international media industry, in terms of helping people find common ground between China and U.S.”

Sticking to the facts

In summary, Feng Wang posed the question to the audience – What can we believe in these days, when it comes to news from either of the super powers, or media which ‘recycle’ what sources report?

When it comes to data they are citing, or experts they are quoting; there was still some level of credibility and trust ten or even five years ago.  But it is a major problem these days, knowing what news to trust.

Feng Wang opined, “We are letting our ideology, our own geopolitical priorities overwhelm what should be the journalist’s number one duty, which is to report on the basic facts.”

It is the journalist responsibility to help people understand the significance of events, and to write the news based on facts, not emotions.

For these reasons I agree with Jessica’s observations that the coming years in technology are going to mark a big challenge for the journalist profession.

IT BYTES BACK! says:  

Journalists have a duty to report on facts, but emotions may colour their experiences, observations, and judgement. So, until the day (in the far future) AI and algorithms can analyse data and report the news, a valuable skill for readers/listeners and journalists alike to learn, is news literacy.