But oddly, I also find myself more motivated because with Michael Mesure (MM): I have mixed feelings about this news.Ī part of me is more frustrated than depressed because these predictions haveīeen out for a long time. How do you stay motivated in the face of this constant barrage of bad news? It’s a good time – as well as a dangerous one – to be alive and engaged with the opportunities and perils ahead.Photo: Michael Mesure Lisa Horn (LH): 2019 saw a lot of depressing news about the state of bird populations in North America. I read the NYT, the Washington Post, the FT, the Times and the Guardian every day - as well as Buzzfeed, Axios, Slate and many others. Twitter exposes me, not to an echo chamber, but to a wide variety of news sources which stretch my mind. In general, I like the public service ideals behind public service broadcasters. I like the idea and people behind De Correspondent in the Netherlands. That may be no bad thing – meeting a public suddenly very attuned to the need for news at its best.īeyond your own book are there any trustworthy sources of news that you would direct a reader to? Journalism may need to reposition itself as a public service. So we can see the need for news, even if the traditional business model for it is in danger of failing. You begin to see a violently polarised society in which anyone can believe anything they want – and which begins to break down. This is true, this isn’t” See what happens when the President of the US deliberately sets out to delegitimise news and journalism and persuade people that real is fake and fake is real. Societies can’t function without an agreed basis of facts. Given the challenges facing that the news industry, and readers of news, are experiencing do you see any cause for hope? And maybe for journalists to have a better understanding of why so much of the public is confused and distrustful. I’d like a general reader to have a better way of understanding the signals that would help negotiate their relationship with news. But “journalism” is a word which also describes sloppy, biased, cruel and untrustworthy information. The best journalism is professional, humane, rigorous and trustworthy. It is right to be sceptical about all sources of information. I would like people to have a deeper understanding of news and how it works. What would you like a reader to take away from your book? Particularly as journalism is experiencing something of an existential crisis which is being hastened by Coronavirus. So, it is vital that we explore – now – the issues of trust in information. Again, the media should play a crucial and trusted role - independent of politicians - in creating an informed public. It really matters that we know who to believe on the emergency around our climate. And people will die.īut in a sense Covid is a dress rehearsal for climate change. If people are badly informed about science, medicine and public policy then wrong decisions or outcomes will follow. The Covid crisis shows how information can be a matter of life and death. Why is this? What could journalism be doing differently to convince a confused public that they deserve trust. But repeated studies show that trust in many forms of news media is stubbornly low. Journalists – of course – want the public to believe in them. Do you believe politicians? Scientists? Mainstream media? TV? Newspapers? Social media? Your friends? People like you? The Covid crisis has shown a confused public. Can you briefly tell us what your new book is about?
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