All Fourth estate institutions have a level of biasness when it comes to different stories that are disseminated to the public domain: this level of bias dictates whether a media house will take a conservative or radical position on a story (Hahn et al., 2015). Fake news is an oxymoron to the definition of news in itself, since it is information whose credibility is not verifiable in the public interest (Gelfert, 2018). Fake news might exist in two forms: disinformation and misinformation. Disinformation refers to a deliberate action of manipulating the public by disseminating dishonest information while misinformation on the other hand is not a deliberate action (Klein & Wueller, 2017). Over the years, journalism has grown as a reputable profession amid many challenges faced especially on their freedom to air out stories. Different key stakeholders in different economies and governments have been major critics of journalism especially because stories shared by the media in most cases are linked to their institutions of power and business. Additionally, the rise of the internet and social media have up-scaled the propaganda that journalists’ news is fake news. Every person on social media is a publisher since the platform is free for all, thus it has become difficult for members of the public to discern what is true and not. Therefore, as much as journalists put in a lot of hard work to get credible information to the public domain, they have been regarded as fake news propagandists. The most dangerous consequence for the modern society, and also what makes this conversation necessary is the impact fake news has on democracy: fake news corrodes democracy in the most gruesome of ways.
Analysis
The fourth estate and its credibility has been a topic of diverse discussions over the years yet it still is in the modern society. Several problems have emerged relating to the topic. Fake news’ ridicules on quality journalism has mainly emanated from three main problematic issues facing the fourth estate: declining funds for public media, continued government control, and the rise of digital media especially social media (McNair, 2017). The journalistic period was structured by the ‘gatekeeper’ model which influences professionalism in the industry: control on credibility, accuracy, and quality of news. However, the introduction of digital media has led to the establishment of social media and internet algorithms for search engines which have put democracies in a deficit position. Social media users are able to publish anything which reaches a large group of people around the world yet the credibility and source of information posted cannot be verified. Digital media undermines democracy in several ways such as disruption of the public square, conversion of popularity into credibility, polarization and hyper-partnerships, allowing space for manipulation by the political class and governments, capture of personal data thus advertising through illegal means (Vosoughi et al., 2018). Since social media users create profiles which permit establishment of a network either through gaining followers or acquiring friends, a user with a huge number of followers is regarded as credible. Therefore, any information posted by such users is considered legitimate and true information which in cases of disparity with what the fourth estate disseminates leads to public confusion (Allcott & Gentzkow, 2017). The public will tend to believe information from digital media and regard journalists’ news as fake. Polarization, manipulation, and other illegal actions are easy in such situations.
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Declining funds for public media are also a problematic issue in the debate of quality journalism and emergence of fake news propaganda. According to Bakir and McStay (2018), public media acquires critical information pertaining different aspects of life through a process that requires investment in terms of both personnel and finances. Therefore, adequacy of funds is a primary factor in ensuring credibility of stories channeled to the public domain: a handicapped process will definitely lead to half truths in prepared stories hence fake news. Declining funds is a problem that in most cases is influenced by governments and major players in related dockets in administration of a nation. Governments have continuously controlled the fourth estate in terms of regulations guiding dissemination of news, and threats on media freedom: this kind of control has resulted to easy manipulation. Therefore, journalists have been bent to the will of the high and mighty, which has resulted to the spread of information that is not true. The awareness of the public about such event within the industry has led to mistrust of institutions and the media too.
Interpretation
Democracy is a key aspect in the organization of societies around the world since it dictates how systems are run. Democracy has led to establishment of institutions whose allowance for diversity has led to generation of the best ideas for economic development, governance, provision of better healthcare, and industrialization. Fake news is a threat to democracy and by extension the growth of economies around the world (Buschman, 2019). Social media for instance has disastrous impact on democracy in the sense that it allows for polarization through propaganda on the online platforms by citizens on matters politics. Dissemination of hate speeches has been a very common event that has led to political instability in many counties such as Kenya which has experienced post-election violence twice, South Sudan which is still battling stability issues, among many other countries (Schuberth, 2018). Governments have been majorly involved in the problems faced by the fourth estate in regard to quality journalism. The media covers stories across different life aspects such as politics, business, entertainment, and the environment. Since governments are interested parties in these areas, they exercise control over journalism to ensure that every story channeled to the public domain is in favor with their ambitions and none of their plans is jeopardized in the process (Roy, 2015). In cases where the media has maintained a strong position on given issues in society, governments have mostly regarded the stories as fake news and urged the citizens to ignore the circulated information. The impact of such declarations has affected the journalism profession and has been a worse case for specific individuals involved whose reputation has been affected and careers ruined.
Evaluation
Journalists should still be trusted as credible sources on information in a society. Observation of key events where the journalists have been branded as fake news bearers illustrates the truth in the statement that the narrative is purely biased on whether the media is in support of an involved individual or organization, or not. For instance, Donald Trump has been a face in the media in the recent past for both the wring reasons and good reasons: Trump has been quoted stating that the media disseminates fake news only on instances that he feels uncomfortable with the published stories, and praised them on occasions that positive things have been said about his administration (Davis & Sinreich, 2018). However, various hindrances to their role as truth tells should be eliminated to avoid their compromise by external forces such as governments. There is need for restructuring of the role of social media in dissemination of information. Solutions have been developed by various stakeholders in the digital media industry such as Google. Digital media companies need to commit their efforts towards filtering out search results and news feeds that contain propaganda, monitor the various identified drivers of disinformation aiming to acquire click-driven advertising revenue, install technology developed for the sole purpose of verification of digital content before dissemination to the public, and development of trust signals on social media platforms to help users identify and distinguish between fake news and credible information.
Engagement
Critique
Think of the fake news propagandists in the fourth estate as a wastage of human brains and effort. Modernity and an enlightened society will rarely have space for mediocrity, especially the kind that is tolerated by disinformation and misinformation carriers within the society. The Fourth estate deserves better at all times, just like its masters who are the citizens. Say NO to fake news and propaganda.
Counterpoint
No Safety Know Pain, No Pain Know Safety might look like a marketing spin, yet it is the answer to our media problems. Good things happen when we become more responsible. Our actions on social media and other digital media platforms matter just like our existence matters in the first place, therefore, we watch our actions and they will watch our safety.
References
Allcott, H., & Gentzkow, M. (2017). Social media and fake news in the 2016 election. Journal of economic perspectives , 31 (2), 211-36.
Bakir, V., & McStay, A. (2018). Fake news and the economy of emotions: Problems, causes, solutions. Digital journalism , 6 (2), 154-175.
Buschman, J. (2019). Good news, bad news, and fake news: Going beyond political literacy to democracy and libraries. Journal of Documentation , 75 (1), 213-228.
Davis, D. H., & Sinnreich, A. (2018). Tweet the Press: Effects of Donald Trump’s “Fake News!” Epithet on Civics and Popular Culture. In President Donald Trump and His Political Discourse (pp. 147-169). Routledge.
Gelfert, A. (2018). Fake news: A definition. Informal Logic , 38 (1), 84-117.
Hahn, K. S., Lee, H. Y., & Lee, J. (2015). Media Bias. The international encyclopedia of political communication , 1-9.
Klein, D., & Wueller, J. (2017). Fake news: A legal perspective. Journal of Internet Law (Apr. 2017) .
McNair, B. (2017). Fake news: Falsehood, fabrication and fantasy in journalism . Routledge.
Roy, A. (2015). Media bias under direct and indirect government control: when is the bias smaller?. Economics Bulletin , 35 (3), 1709.
Schuberth, M. (2018). Hybrid security governance, post-election violence and the legitimacy of community-based armed groups in urban Kenya. Journal of Eastern African Studies , 12 (2), 386-404.
Vosoughi, S., Roy, D., & Aral, S. (2018). The spread of true and false news online. Science , 359 (6380), 1146-1151.
