Text by Anna Valmero, Philippines
Photos by Gabriel d’Alincourt, Brazil/Germany

Those who are perceived as reliable news sources will prevail in the long run.

Journalists must redouble efforts to publish fact-based reporting in an era wherein hate speech, filter bubbles and fake news are causing dramatic shifts worldwide.

“News based on factual reporting is not fake and not based on opinion-driven propaganda and manipulation,” said Amanda Bennett, Voice of America director, during the opening plenary of Deutsche Welle Global Media Forum, with the theme, Identity and Diversity.

“That requires slowing down, doing the research on-ground legwork and being relentless in seeking the other side of the story,” Bennett said.

With social media platforms, 3D virtual stories, computer bots, and news aggregators revolutionizing the way people consume information and produce content, the need for traditional journalism values and skills is needed more than ever, Bennett explained. And as such, journalism schools need to focus more on training young journalists on media literacy.

But the responsibility to promote truth to the greater public does not reside alone to on the shoulders of journalists, who have traditionally served as the fourth pillar of democracy, and act as political watchdogs for decades, said Jason Hannan, associate professor in University of Winnipeg.

“We should be able to open up citizen engagement to avoid creating more paranoia,” Hannan said.

Citizen engagement is one way to address the matter, Hannan noted, and in tandem with social media literacy, these two make media professionals more responsible in creating and delivering content in order to better inform audiences.

Assistant Director-General of UNESCO Frank La Rue noted, that access to information is relevant to key issues of the day and it is not only human rights or democracy issue – it is a development issue.

“We need to build peace out of diversity and differences by enhancing knowledge and understanding through clear communications. A difference in opinion should not lead to insults or criticisms. You can have different stands on issues and have a friendly, respectful dialogue,” La Rue explained.

“We cannot deny the reality of diversity. What we need is to discover the benefit of diversity of ideas and identities to promote better understanding,” he added.

To further enrich the discussion, Hannan urged media outlets and news organizations to “host dialogues so people with different perspectives can have a civil conversation, not verbal boxing matches” often characteristic of “he-said, she-said” type of coverages.

Meanwhile, media censorships, especially done by governments such as in Turkey today not only stifle voices or harm human rights, they also create stronger divisions and disenfranchises marginal groups. On another front, media attacks through direct criticisms and branding professional media outlets as fake and “the enemy of the people” as seen in the US, for example, is a huge threat today.

The media can make a stand to fight this with the ABC’s of journalism: by producing stories with Accuracy, Balance and Clarity, said Yosri Fouda, editor of The Fifth Estate at Deutsche Welle.

Freedom of Speech awardee Jeff Mason, President of the White House Correspondents’ Association, said that journalists have the responsibility not to be distracted by such rhetorics. “We simply have to go to work everyday and report on how this administration is governing.”

The polarization of society today “drives people to enter a cocoon that pushes them to hear only what they want to hear and the problem or question right now is how to penetrate that cocoon” so people will listen to factual reporting and understand what is actually happening, Fouda said.

“There is a good opportunity for serious journalists to find a niche to address polarization and to seek facts,” Fouda added.