Media Futures: Ground Truth in a Fake News World

Jonathan Marcus (BBC) discusses journalism and the threat to traditional media.

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Truth matters more than ever. Recent events - the crisis in US democracy, the Brexit saga and the pandemic have all highlighted the importance of traditional journalistic values at a time of widespread social division and crisis. But at the same time the traditional media are under threat like never before with newspapers closing, public service broadcasting challenged, and the new pseudo-journalism of social media apparently dominating so much of the public debate. So is traditional journalism in terminal decline? Are its values simply out of date? How should it change? And why nonetheless, is it in my view, so central to the future health of our democracy?

Jonathan Marcus joined the BBC World Service in 1985 and has worked across radio, television and online. Jonathan began as Defence Correspondent just before the Iraqi invasion of Kuwait and moved to the Diplomatic brief just after the end of the Iraq War which he covered from CENTCOM in Qatar. For the past decade or so he has combined both roles. He reported on two wars in the Gulf and the western interventions in the Balkans. He has travelled extensively in western and eastern Europe; the wider Middle East and the United States. Jonathan retired from the BBC last August but is still writing for the BBC online.  

Twitter: @Diplo1