viewpoint Tim Dawson on what action should be taken to stem fake news


The truth will out, but we need to assist it


I


n Scoop, Evelyn Waugh’s fictionalised account of reporting Italy’s invasion of Abyssinia, his most memorable


sketch is that of “journalistic legend” Wenlock Jake. Jake is said once to have been dispatched by train to a Balkan capital in search of a nonexistent uprising. Waking in the wrong city, he imagined distant streets in uproar so vividly that his resulting copy sparked an actual revolution in the capital where he had missed his stop. The novel, published in 1938, was


Waugh’s dig at an industry in which he had not prospered; among its targets was “fake news” – so it is not quite the emergent phenomena that alarmists suggest, then. Scoop is an entertaining tale, for sure, but can we learn from it? Concern with contemporary fake


news is at times shrill – two inquiries led by British politicians are currently underway. Nevertheless, it is a problem that has been magnified many times over since the days of the hapless William Boot, Waugh’s hero. More than 100 fake US news websites


operate from one Macedonian town, social media algorithms confine us to preconception-affirming information bubbles and some politicians prosper from appealing to prejudice over facts. Research at Stamford University examined young people’s ability to distinguish credible web news from the obverse, with dismaying results. Studies over 18 months found that around one third of the sample: did not understand that material labelled “sponsored content” differed from editorial; could not distinguish fake news sites from real ones; and were effortlessly bamboozled by professional-looking web graphics. The report’s authors


concluded that a lack of “civic online reasoning” threatened democracy. Another study shows that simply


rebutting untruths often reinforces the convictions of those who hold them. This all begs the question: what can


journalists do that might turn back the tide of deliberate misinformation? Some of the answer lies in a steadfast commitment to our time-served principles. Honest, ethical reporting, rooted in our code of conduct is key to retaining our currency. We should also embrace opportunities to explain the provenance of any assertion we make (without compromising sources). Defence of journalistic ethics should


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All citizens should learn to navigate the information blizzard, and our professional future depends on promoting that ability


remain at the core of our collective industrial work – fighting for a conscience clause for those pressured to report unethically, insisting on staffing levels sufficient to guarantee quality and campaigning for the fair pay necessary for talented journalists to produce high-quality work. Journalists’ reflex to foster media literacy must become as instinctive as that to defend press


freedom. Everyone should know how to navigate the information blizzard, and our professional future depends on promoting that ability. More than anything else,


however, we need to make veracity intrinsic to our product. Some means to do this


may be novel, such as using technology to provide engagement and verification. The deployment of shoe leather


remains the key feature of quality journalism. Verify facts, obtain further proofs, seek opposing views, then fashion narrative. We can’t stop fake news, but we can ensure consumers know they’re getting the real thing. “Truth will out” was Waugh’s ostensible conclusion in Scoop. That his work is still treated as a primer for entrants to our trade shows that sometimes it is finding novel ways to tell the truth that ensures the most enduring resonance.


Tim Dawson is president of the NUJ. www.nujpresident.org.uk


JAMES ADAMS


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