FOURTH ESTATE The changing (or is it?) role of the Fourth Estate in a metamorphosing, technologicallyempowered world Journalists making the rocky transition from legacy to digital media need to anticipate and embrace perpetual newsroom change, and be willing participants in this revolution, writes CHARLES KING. The next wave of technological disruption from AI-driven automation, big data, and new visual and voice-based interfaces will, too, rock the media world. J Charles King freelanced as a journalist/writer for 22 years before lecturing journalism at the Cape Peninsula University of Technology. He’s a PhD candidate in the UCT Centre for Film and Media Studies, and has a Master’s in Journalism and Media Studies (Wits). He lectures on news writing, online media and specialist reporting (data journalism, reporting African development and climate change et al). ournalism is not dying, won’t die and is merely in the process of sloughing yet another skin. The challenge, though, is that skin after skin is sloughing at a terrific pace. I stretch the metaphor further – there are no longer hibernation periods between the sloughing. Which is the essence of the Fourth Industrial Revolution, which according to the WEF represents “a fundamental change in the way we live, work and relate to one another”. It’s another chapter in human development, enabled by astounding technological advances equivalent to those of the first three industrial revolutions. Except, now, the physical, digital and biological worlds are melding (get your head around that) in ways that fabricate both mammoth promise and (potentially) enormous peril. Alan Rusbridger – editor of The Guardian 19952015, and chair of the Reuters Institute for the Study of Journalism – maintains that while all change is difficult, “perpetual [newsroom] change is twice as hard – as well as being exhausting and, at times, quite frightening”. In essence, looking backwards and forwards, this was the Reuters Institute for the Study of Journalism at Oxford’s 2020 prediction: The twin technological disruptions of mobile and social media, which fragmented attention, undermined advertisingbased business models, and weakened the role of journalistic gatekeepers, defined the last decade. Simultaneously, social and political disruptions have affected trust in journalism and led to attacks on independent news media in many countries. The next decade, they said, would be defined by: Increasing regulation of the internet and attempts to re-establish trust in journalism and a closer connection with audiences. The next wave of technological disruption from AI-driven automation, big data, and new visual and voice-based interfaces will, too, rock it. All this against a backdrop 6 Lame Duck Digital of economic and political uncertainty which [would] throw up further challenges to the sustainability of many news organisations. Now, into that boiling pot, toss COVID-19. Informed citizenry The twin technological disruptions of mobile and social media, which fragmented attention, undermined advertising-based business models, and weakened the role of journalistic gatekeepers, defined the last decade Undoubtedly an informed citizenry is vital in our democracy while an unbiased press is vital to serving that citizenry, which is why we champion it as a democratic cornerstone. News algorithms, automation and artificial intelligence all impact journalism. While Facebook reported revenues of almost $17 billion for the last quarter of 2018, news outlets were (and are still) dropping like flies, wrote Sylvia McKeown in 2019, “mostly thanks to its advertising positioning”. “Facebook and Google’s monopolisation of digital ad revenues is due to the amount of data the companies [can] collect and control,” she wrote. This data allows the mega-companies to be highly calculated in their advertising positioning, so brands can more effectively align their products. “Essentially, the death of journalism won’t be brought about by screens but by algorithms.” Misinformation from all directions Without a doubt – via digital media, citizen journalists, fake news etc. – misinformation comes at us from every direction. Yet, while we may criticise the role giant tech companies play in this – Rusbridger believes while they deserve “a great deal of scrutiny and a fair amount of blame” - we must also learn from them. “That means using them in your personal, as well as professional, lives. And being curious as to why more than two billion people are on Facebook; or 330 million on Twitter; or 430 million on Reddit.” They must be doing something right. Misinformation stokes mistrust and governments will, often, take advantage of this, while politicians actively talk nonsense, lie, and not care. Africa Check, an indispensable part of the South African media landscape, is adamant: “For democracy to function, we must hold public figures accountable for what they say. We must check their claims openly and impartially.” Fact-checking should not be a dying art That fact-checking sometimes appears to be a dying art and proper sub-editors a dying breed is due to newsroom attrition by severe costcutting. The result is the phenomena of newsroom ‘juniorisation’ and centralised, overworked sub-editors in cash-strapped national media organisations. However, what you want to verify may not, of course, be a spoken or written claim but material – photos, videos, blogs or other content – sent to you or published online, Africa Check warns. “In the digital age, photographs, video footage, text documents, websites, and Twitter and other social media feeds can all be falsified.” That’s why independent and nonpartisan organisations – like Africa Check – are sprouting globally. Their purpose is to “assess claims made in the public arena using journalistic skills and evidence drawn from the latest online tools, readers, public sources and experts, sorting fact from fiction and publishing the results”. It’s why the likes of Trump is factchecked in real-time as he shoots his mouth off. Traditional journalistic skills – the news gathering and news writing – won’t disappear despite the turbulent sea change. These are the essential abilities to spot a story, to gather and convey information effectively, and the talent to communicate a story accurately, but in an information-overloaded world. Journalists making the rocky transition from legacy to digital media need to anticipate and embrace perpetual newsroom change, and be willing participants in this revolution. Or to make their move into PR, or advertising. At the funfair (real life) only some, a small percentage I guess, choose to take the roller-coaster ride. It’s that same percentage that, again it’s a guess, will flock to journalism. It’s because they desire the ride of their lives. After all, they aren’t to be bank tellers.
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