On this World News Day, for too many people, the future is getting too dark to see. This moment is best described as living in a state of perpetual flux, of global uncertainty and deep, unsettling insecurity.
Our world is increasingly built on information, sometimes almost exclusively, and the news media is its basic infrastructure.
Like water and energy, we often only notice its absence when the service stops. So too with reliable news – only when it disappears will we realise how deeply our daily lives depend on the steady delivery of reliable information.
AI is an important part of our common future, but it will not be a panacea for every problem we encounter. An algorithm still cannot replace a dogged reporter or a savvy investigative journalist.
It is humans who make a crucial difference – because only humans can bring empathy, moral judgment, and persistence to the search for truth.
Perilous moment
As the institutions of old are crumbling, and many are already gone with no replacement, this task is getting more complex by the day.
In this perilous moment, news media’s duty, its daily delivery, and indeed its existence itself, feel more important and consequential than ever before.
We are still truth’s most important messengers.
If we are to continue delivering on our mission’s promise, we in the news media also must think long and hard about the years ahead.
We understand that, with the greatest urgency, we must reaffirm news media’s compact with the communities we serve; to fortify our personal covenant with each and every reader, viewer and listener; to hold steady while the very ground is shaking under our feet.
Dystopian future
We strive to be guardians of the line separating current times from an all-too-realistic dystopian future.
As you read this, journalism is suspended precariously between old and new worlds; an integral part of both history but also of the transformation that is rewiring our humanity right now; a force for change and yet itself in danger of becoming a relic of the past.
What once was a comfortably profitable business has now transformed into a struggling sector with an uncertain future. In these changing times, our old media business model has rapidly aged. A new one is still nowhere to be found. When newsrooms close, communities lose watchdogs. Corruption flourishes in the dark. Truth has fewer defenders.
We are hardly making any money anymore, harassment is our daily norm, and our long-term viability is under threat. Financial precarity knocks on the doors of all but the most secure outlets.
New era
Autocrats, Big Tech, influencers, and industries of all colours are still major news media consumers even as many from those circles claim it has no importance anymore. ‘Ordinary’ readers might not know, but in every discussion, every debate, every understanding and every decision made, there was a significant, and most times decisive, component of the news media reporting.
For many decades, journalism has been a defender of global democratic values and the rules-based system that has defined our civilisation and underpinned an unprecedented, if unevenly distributed, period of planetary growth and prosperity.
We were there every step of the way: to report on human rights abuse, the horror of armed conflict, the injustice of corruption, and so much more.
It is highly unlikely that we will ever return to these ‘old’ times though – the march of technology is ushering in a new era that changes the very fundamentals of our lives together.
And yet, whichever shape our ‘new’ civilisation may take, it will still have to have its foundations in trustworthy information – that’s the only solid ground that anything lasting can be built on.
Civilisation worth fighting for
As a human race, we evolved because we were able to pass information to the next generation. Information is the best, and possibly the most powerful technology we have ever invented.
But we cannot create, or re-create, anything while flying blind, or stumbling in the dark.
It is not only the democracies that die in darkness, it is entire civilisations that perish. The news media’s message on this World News Day is not about saving sectoral jobs – it is about saving what we all built over thousands of years. Our civilisation is worth fighting for.
An overwhelming majority of journalists swear a silent oath to serve our communities by serving truth. It is a sacred duty that fulfils our lives in ways that richly compensate for any financial shortcomings and deprivations.
Truth and trust are truly of the essence in moments like these.
And the best way to respect yourself is to be careful about your sources and who you trust. Support the news that supports you. Subscribe, share, defend truth. Choose trustworthy journalism—because without it, the light goes out for us all.
Branko Brkic is leader of Project Kontinuum and co-founder Daily Maverick. This opinion piece was commissioned as part of the World News Day campaign, an initiative to show the value of journalism.
