Ditchley Conference: The New Fourth Estate

The fall of the fourth power and the rise of the fifth?

Luisa at matriculation day

In ‘Postjournalism and the death of newspapers’, media expert Andrey Mir paints a grim future for journalism. As the ads business continues to be more and more concentrated in the hands of big tech companies, media outlets have tried to switch —some with success, but most without it— to a subscription-based business model. Since people get their news from social media, traditional media is now in the business of validating previously-known news within the value systems that are appealing to their audiences. Mir goes on to claim that the arrival of the internet is not simply a challenge for journalism, but an extinction-level event.

Ironically, the world’s increasing concern about the dissemination of disinformation in social media has not led to robust support of media outlets. Is there hope for good, independent journalism? These topics were discussed at “The New Fourth Estate: building a resilient 21st-century information eco-system”, the latest edition of the prestigious Ditchley Conference, in which I was fortunate to participate along with journalists, researchers, and other experts.

The discussions followed the Chatham House Rule, that is, participants are free to use the information received, but neither the identity nor the affiliation of the participants. The conference was divided between plenary discussions and smaller working groups in which we talked about how to separate truth from falsehood, how to modernise journalism, and how to create an ecosystem where facts rise and falsehoods sink.

Everybody was fully aware that this issue is not easily fixable, and there was, of course, some pessimism, including the idea that we are likely to end up with barely half a dozen high-quality outlets serving the whole English-speaking world and with no more than one or two outlets at the national level. However, there were also some ideas on what could be done. These are they.

Improving journalism

Most of the participants spoke about the need to improve what the media outlets are doing: the press needs to tell better stories and provide more context so that audiences feel more invested. There is also a need to build capacity within media outlets to develop skills like audience analytics monitoring. There was even the suggestion that bigger, better-funded news organisations could provide tech and knowledge transfer to smaller, less wealthy ones around the world.

A lot of emphases was placed on making media outlets more diverse, for example, in terms of age or race. Journalism needs more diversity in the newsroom but only in the stories it tells, to reach newer audiences: engaging in places where there is not a strong media presence could be an effective way to grow.

Opportunities in technologies

Some were optimistic about the possibilities brought about by technology. Podcasts, newsletters, and platforms like Substack were all mentioned. There was even talk about how AI could be used to both enhance the work of journalists (e.g. to process large amounts of information) and fight disinformation through automated fact-checking, flagging bots, preventing the dissemination of malicious content, etc. However, they did recognise developing this sort of AI takes a while.

On the financing of media outlets

Of course, improving journalism and taking advantage of technology are costly. So participants discussed all forms of financing: memberships, subscriptions, ads, and philanthropy. Someone suggested we could consider turning outlets into non-profits. Somebody suggested a cross-sector, where governments, businesses, NGOs, and other organisations should come together to support the press.

Research

Some participants highlighted that more research is needed to explain, for example, what leads people to search for truth (instead of disinformation), what debunking methods might work better (like the research being done on prebunking), or how young people consume information.

Education, education, education

The ever-present mention of education was also there: we should work to educate both the producers and the consumers of information to achieve digital literacy and train people to separate truth from facts.

Changing social media companies

Some contributors wondered if disinformation could be tackled by forcing companies to make their algorithms more transparent or taming their ad-based business models. For instance, limiting personalised advertising, especially in certain contexts (like health or elections).

I cannot deny I feel somehow pessimistic about the future of journalism. I also feel puzzled by the fact that journalists, whose lives revolve around the telling of stories, have not found a way to tell their own ones, to explain to the audience why we all need them, and to make people fall in love with journalism. However, I do hope we all quickly figure out a way to use technology to aid the press and not as its tomb. Having this space to have an open and honest conversation about the current state of journalism and about even how we all struggle to find solutions is a good start. As a passionate advocate for free speech, I am deeply grateful to the Ditchley Foundation for providing a platform that enables individuals in my field to engage in meaningful discourse and collectively envision a brighter future for journalism.

Luisa at library