The title of my article is not hyperbole. A disease has slowly been spreading for centuries, but in the past decade it has evolved, and it has become rampant. It is insidious, and it is lethal. I am talking about the worldwide pandemic of misinformation and propaganda, carefully nurtured by social media, new AI technology, and old oligarchs. As the diametric opposite of social media, good journalism and a free press is the vital cure this world needs. Allow me to tell you how journalists can save the world.
According to Pew Research Center, 54% of adults get at least some of their news from social media. Which is a problem, because social media is filled with sensationalists and grifters. People who care more about engagement than accuracy, and people who lie (specifically paid to lie) to reinforce some agenda, respectively. Generative AI is part of that problem. Social media bots are more human-like, and photo evidence is untrustworthy. Speaking of people paid to lie, Elon Musk owns one of the biggest social media sites while in the cabinet of the president.
Fortunately, not all papers are owned by pandering billionaires. The other day, I went with the rest of The Scribe to the San Francisco Chronicle for a field trip, and I saw with my own eyes how hard journalists work in order to get to the truth of our social/political reality and share it with the public.
Journalists are professionals who are trained for years and follow a code of ethics. “I’d rather go to jail,” said Jill Tucker, the Chronicle’s education reporter, “before I snitch on any of my sources.” That is the standard of integrity that defines journalism. We are trained on accuracy and objectivity. Our editors ensure we’re a trustworthy source of information.
I mean source quite literally. The first amendment ensures that the law will support our jobs to break down doors and report from the source of events, in order to criticize the government and give a voice to the voiceless. J.D. Morris, the city hall reporter for the Chronicle, described what he did on a daily basis. He has city government contacts on speed dial, while going around town personally standing toe to toe with powerful people and calling their corruption out directly in their face.
Journalists make a real impact in the world through their reporting. Tucker herself discovered a corrupt school administrator who misused funding, and pressured them into resigning. If you have ever seen the Oscars winning 2016 best picture of the year Spotlight, that film was based on the true story on how investigative journalists exposed the Catholic Church’s attempt to cover up child molestation from various clergy. President Richard Nixon resigned because of journalists uncovering his Watergate scandal.
The last place The Scribe visited was the Chronicle’s basement to see its archive, with more than a hundred years of history behind it. “This is what the newspaper is,” said Jill Tucker. “This is the first draft of history.”
There were some boxes with the original Zodiac Killer files, a photo from the last time it snowed in San Francisco in 1976, photos of the very first pandas to come to America, and even the original diagrams of the design for the Golden Gate Bridge. It was like visiting a miniature museum with 150 years of history, compacted in one basement.
I believe journalism is an artform, because journalists are artists. We live life and we see things and have these feelings that we must expel out into the world. Instead of a canvas, we use language. A local Vietnamese spot just opened, and you need to tell everyone about it? You can make an impact writing about that. From baseball games to movie reviews, stories are all around us to explore, and journalists are paid to tell them.
We need good journalism to understand our world better. We are the source of information. We are explorers, historians, storytellers, and seekers of the truth. The press was originally the people’s attempt to reclaim power from a corrupt government system, because information is power. You can make a difference too. Journalism can save the world.