Fake news, like dud banknotes, threatens society

[Klaralven]

Almost no capital investment is needed for gossip, with the playing field skewed towards bad information

...

Good journalism needs great culture. Years of experience and very sound, ethical standards make it possible to tell true information from the false information people are fed every day. That is, good journalism is based on journalists who have to work ten to 20 years and after decades of study produce valuable stories.

Sensational gossip needs no study and certainly no ethical standards. Yet, based on the number of hits the two get, the one which needs huge capital investment, good journalism, receives a fraction of what it needs.

Almost zero capital investment is needed for bad gossip. The playing field is horribly skewed toward bad information. Hits mean advertisements, and certain information gains a readership.

The reality is clear: fewer people read physical newspapers, and more people read information from the internet because it is far more convenient. But the price of unchecked convenience is that one can often hardly tell what’s of value and what’s of no value.

This has turned into draining resources from good journalism and giving those resources to bad information, with an overall decline in the level of information.

https://asiatimes.com/2021/03/fake-news-like-dud-banknotes-threatens-society/

[TreasonousBastard]

1. This has always been true. Do a quick search for "yellow journalism" and you might...

come up with the circulation war between Pulitzer and Hearst that got us into the Spanish-American War.

NYC once had over 200 dailies, and after the foreign language and other specific ones, they fought for eyeballs at the news stands. Tabloids almost literally screamed at you.

And the most read, or listened to, were not the Lippmans or Cronkites, but the Winchells and Coughlins.