IRONICALLY, ‘fake news’ might just be the saviour of newsprint in the long run.
OK, some of you wags might still insist: “Don’t believe anything you read in a newspaper.”
In truth, there has been such a splurge of ‘fake news’ on social media of late that you would be far better off trusting what you read in any established newspaper and their own digital off-shoots, like the Herald and www.southcoastherald.co.za. (Excuse the punt.)
Newspaper journalists are by no means perfect or ‘saints’, but at least there are laws, ethics, checks and balances that govern what they write. And you know where to find them!
Therefore, ‘pundits’ might yet be proved wrong when they say that online journalism will eventually sound the death knell of traditional newspapers. While there are certainly some extremely good journalists who publish online only, there are even more who can only be described as ‘click-bait artists’ who merely want you to ‘click’ onto a site so they can boast about their ‘traffic’. More ‘eyeballs’, more chances of paid-for advertising. Or even more sinister motives.
Remember those old classified print advertisements? “SEX! Now that we’ve got your attention…”
The Advertising Standards Authority soon put paid to that.
The Herald and our parent company, Caxton, have been brainstorming ideas for some time to deliver credible local news in both digital and print formats to grow the former in such a way so as not to harm the latter in the process.
The strategy seems to be working both ways in our case.
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In a nutshell, digital news is virtually ‘instant’. Newspapers – weeklies like the Herald in particular – then have to change their mindset to: “We know you already know, but we’ll tell you more.”
So you will be able to read ‘breaking news’ on your computer, tablet or mobile virtually moments after an incident has happened.
Meanwhile, much of the Herald content is ‘unique to print’ and geared towards crusading-type front pages about community issues like water problems, crumbling facilities, etc.
However, the whole media scenario has now taken a rather strange and unforeseen twist.
Just one example, the famed Huffington Post, which is purely digital, published a blog by a ‘fake’ journalist recently suggesting that ‘white men’ be denied the vote in South Africa.
The post went viral and crash! The purely online news site’s credibility went out of the window.
Community journalists are infinitely more cautious… if only for fear of meeting their detractors in the local pub.
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