Column authors urge media to rebuild trust — Daily Maverick

In South Africa, Daily Maverick published a column by Branko Brkic and Tina Brown in which the authors urged journalists to rebuild audience trust through independent, transparent and accountable work. The material was prepared as part of World News Day, a global campaign dedicated to the role of journalism in spreading facts and clarity.

The struggle for the information space

The authors believe that journalism is under pressure from authoritarian leaders, oligarchs, propagandists, governments and major technology platforms. In their view, such platforms determine what information is distributed among billions of people and what may disappear from the information space.

The column notes that the information environment has become one of the key arenas of the struggle for power. Control over what people know affects their beliefs, fears, trust, voting choices, consumer decisions and attitudes toward the legitimacy of power, Brkic and Brown write.

At the same time, the authors stress that claims of the alleged death or irrelevance of the media contradict the efforts of various centers of influence to control journalism. They also acknowledge the media industry's own responsibility for the crisis of trust.

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Media responsibility

According to the authors, even before major technology platforms captured the advertising market, many newsrooms began treating readers as metrics, turning coverage of events into content and outrage into a business model.

Brkic and Brown urge media outlets to explain to audiences how they establish facts, acknowledge and correct mistakes, and show evidence whenever possible. They believe that technology and artificial intelligence will transform reporting, analysis, translation, investigations and the distribution of materials, but journalism must not abandon its purpose of establishing the truth and holding power in check.

Branko Brkic is the founder of Project Kontinuum. Tina Brown is an editor, author and founder of Truth Tellers, the Sir Harry Evans Global Journalism Summit.