The demise of traditional journalism

Organizations like the Public Media Alliance have developed a front against what they define as 'disinformation' among its members, which include the ABC and SBS (Australia), CBC (Canada), Mediacorp (Singapore), Thai PBS (Thailand), BBC (UK), and PBS (US). In addition, media organizations receive funding from corporations, such as Pfizer, which restricts open reporting. The Bill & Melinda Gates foundation gave out grants to media outlets like The Guardian in 2020 to support 'global health' reporting.

All of the above has drastically limited the freedom of journalistic expression, where journalists themselves are discouraged from reporting what they believe to be the truth, against narratives their employers support. As a consequence, many talented journalists have sort more lucrative jobs as publicists, speech writers, and political secretaries.

Investigative journalism is a dangerous occupation. According to the International Federation of Journalists, 120 journalists died on the job in 2023. Most of these have been in war zones. The institutional attacks on journalists are symbolized by the incarceration of Julian Assange at HM Prison Belmarsh in London, since 2019, while fighting extradition to the United States on charges of espionage. The defamation, libel, and Official Secrets Act are used to persecute journalists. Investigative journalist Clare Rewcastle-Brown was recently sentenced to two years jail in Malaysia in absentia for defamation.

Finally, the rapid development of artificial intelligence (AI) is drastically destroying journalism. We are now at the point where some media organizations are creating content through AI, dispensing with journalists all together. This saves media companies paying out massive salaries for journalists, with the AI creation of content from desktop resources.

Impartial reporting is dead

Journalistic ethics have been forcibly dropped with the rise of the media as a propaganda tool. Objectivity and the facts have fallen victim to self-serving narratives.

Objective reporting has been replaced with 'ego-journalism', where news is replaced with opinion orientated commentary, where presenters become 'brands' in their own right. These platforms are being used to used to attack and ridicule political figures, in a way that would have not been acceptable a generation ago.

It's much easier (and cheaper) to espouse narratives than undertake hard investigative work. Good investigative work is often suppressed by social media censorship in a number of ways. This includes the inability to post certain articles, de-amplifying posts so few read them, modifying algorithms so posts wont show up in search results, labelling an article with so form of pseudo 'fact check', or deplatforming a person outright.

With a concentrated media and less journalists, there is less coverage of a number of issues, leaving large gaps in news coverage, especially local news. Specialist journalists are now few and far between, as senior journalists are often sacrificed for juniors on much lower salaries.

Traditional journalism is quickly dying, as is the media's ability to act as a check and balance of government.

A new era in journalism

However, the above doesn't mean that journalism is totally dead. Journalism is taking on a new form through independent media. The recent Tucker Carlson interviews of Donald Trump and Vladimir Putin clearly show the rising influence of independent online journalism, much to the dismay of the legacy media. More people are heading across to alternative media, leaving the legacy media in large numbers.