Journalism is a competitive industry, with no shortage of reporters willing to use dirty tactics to win scoops and pump up circulation or ratings. But in spite of such lapses, most journalists also take seriously their role as a trusted source of information and custodians of a vital public service.
Increasingly this is under threat. With so much more media now consumed online, attention-seeking has become an end in itself. In a recent book, “Traffic”, Ben Smith, the former editor of Buzzfeed, describes the dodgy things his publication did to win audiences, such as publishing deliberately offensive and procative opinions and stolen intimate photos. In a world in which everything is measured in clicks, talk of quality journalism sounds pretty glib.
Yet good information matters as much as ever, and this is where The Conversation comes in. Our democracy cannot function without trustworthy information, yet everywhere we see signs of anger, division and the poor outcomes that flow from an unreliable information ecosystem.
