THE media was once considered a pillar that guaranteed a country’s democratic system.

Its role was to provide a forum for freedom of speech and information, and scrutinise political leaders and their policies, decisions and actions. The media enabled citizens to make informed decisions on the selection of their leaders, once carrying great sway.

The exposé of the Watergate Hotel break-in and its connections right up to the top echelons of the White House by Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein of the Washington Post in 1972 is heralded as the best example of the investigative journalism that exposed corruption in government. This was the golden era of journalism.

Since then, journalism has dramatically changed.

There are now many laws hindering investigative journalism. Whistle-blowers are now more viciously sort out and punished by authorities, even though many countries claim to have enacted laws to protect them. Defamation laws are now tighter; journalists themselves are persecuted and prosecuted under draconian laws around the world. Media companies are owned by organisations that pursue particular political narratives. The nature of journalists and environment they work within is very different from what it once was.

Journalism is a high-risk occupation in many countries.

According to Reporters Without Borders, arbitrary detention of journalists last year was 488, while 65 were held hostage in some part of the world. Forty-six lost their lives in the line of duty and two are missing. These figures do not include the number of journalists facing civil and criminal suits for defamation, news portals like Terry Xu’s Online Citizen in Singapore being forcibly shut down by authorities and those probed and charged under draconian laws like the Official Secrets Act. Police forces raid and intimidate journalists and treat them as they are criminals.

The Norwegian Nobel Committee in 2021 focused on the worldwide suppression of the media and press freedom in their selection of Maria Ressa of the Philippines and Dmitry Muratov of Russia as joint Nobel Peace Prize Laureates.

One of the major threats to the integrity of journalism is coming from within. The media’s traditional role has been to inform the public of the facts. However, this has been hijacked by media organisations themselves.

Most media corporations, including independent media, have allowed strong editorial lines to evolve over many issues. They have set positions on “woke issues”, climate change, SARS Covid 2, Black Lives Matter, and the European Union.

Journalists consequently must practise self-censorship to remain employed. Any investigative or critical articles researched by and written by journalists must carry their employer’s editorial line.

Canadian Broadcast Corporation (CBC) journalist Tara Henley gave some insight into the culture of a major news broadcaster, claiming the CBC has gone from being a trusted source of news, to churning out clickbait that reads like a parody of the student press. Henley continues saying that the CBC pretends that the “woke” worldview is universal and pursues issues that provide and monetise outrage against views that social media platforms are hostile to.

Sweeping societal changing issues like lockdowns, vaccine mandates and school closures are largely left without any insightful examination or debate. Many critical articles rise little above ad hominem attacks or use anecdotes to justify arguments.

According to Henley, journalists and staff are now employed according to qualifications and meeting particular profiles.

Many media organisations are suffering massive drops in ratings. Long-trusted news networks, including the BBC, CBC, CNN, and ABC Australia, have all fallen dramatically in viewership.

Outside pressure groups have compromised media organisations, turning them into propaganda mouthpieces to disseminate specific editorial agendas. For example, the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation gave a grant to The Guardian of US$3.5 million (RM15 million) in September 2020 to increase awareness on global health and public medicine.

With the ABC, BBC, CBC, and CNN on one side and Fox and Sky News on the other side, very few journalists within the mainstream media have been able to critically analyse major issues objectively. Networks were clearly partisan on the major issues of the era, the Iraq war and weapons of mass destruction, the January 6 riots, Trump’s Russia-gate, and Hunter Biden hard-disk, are just a few examples.

This has not been assisted by social media platforms which have become clearly partisan, removing content that doesn’t meet their clandestine editorial lines. Facebook even has a blacklist of unacceptable organisations. Mistakenly banning information is becoming a growing problem.

Another major influence upon journalism today is the development of the journalism degree, turning journalism into a pseudo academic profession. Traditionally, cadet journalists would follow a career path after an apprenticeship in a media organisation, picking up the skills of information seeking, research, writing and editing as they go along. This has now changed, with a journalism degree being a prerequisite of employment within many media organisations.

Those who study journalism, do so at the cost of learning grounding technical disciples and sciences that will enable them to understand highly technical disciplines, like climate science and public health. Mass media organisations are employing interns with general degrees in journalism, who are writing articles about extremely complex subjects that few people may understand.

Consequently, many articles are supported by fallacies of consensus among scientists, medical doctors, and emotionally charged anecdotal examples, rather than exploring the research on the subject. Forecasting models are reinterpreted as fear-mongering and alarmist facts to promote clicks.

Journalists, once the gatekeepers of the truth have lost their status to social media platforms, and their fact-checkers which also employ people with journalism, rather than technical backgrounds.

Maria Ressa, was less kind to social media in her Nobel Peace Prize acceptance when she said, social media “has allowed a virus of lies to infect each of us, pitting us against each other, bringing out our worse fears, anger, hate, and setting the stage for the rise of authoritarian dictators of the world”.

However, while mass media organisations are employing interns without specific disciplinary knowledge and social media is deciding what people can or cannot read, another phenomenon is going on. Many high profile and experienced journalists are opting out of media organisations and turning to platforms like Substack or Medium.

Substack allows autonomy and editorial freedom. These platforms are unencumbered by the new gatekeepers, where stories can go out as emails to subscribers. Substack allows independent journalists to follow their investigative and writing passions from their homes.

Journalism has long moved away from reporting the news. News now comes with analysis and commentary. People read the people they believe and trust. This new window on journalism is appearing at the community, regional, national, geopolitical and specialist disciplinary areas.

Will this rekindle investigative journalism once again? These platforms enable independence, but whether this will come with the patience and discipline to do the hard and tedious detective work required of investigative journalism is another question.

However, the multitude of journalists and their fragmentation will ensure alternative voices in the online wilderness. Ironically, Twitter enabled journalists to build up personal followings that transcended their employers’ branding.

Over the next couple of years, we will know what these new platforms will do for journalism. This may force more diversity within mass media op-eds, or big tech may come in and takeover these platforms putting them once more behind the gatekeepers. – February 3, 2022.

* Murray Hunter reads The Malaysian Insight.

* This is the opinion of the writer or publication and does not necessarily represent the views of The Malaysian Insight. Article may be edited for brevity and clarity.