With AI and It's Trust Eroding, how can we create reliable media ecosystems?
Introduction#
In 2024, almost 2 billion people worldwide will be taking part in the democratic process, as elections will be held in numerous nations such as the US, the EU, and India, among others.
Concerns are growing about the unparalleled speed and scale at which generative artificial intelligence (AI) could multiply misinformation and disinformation in what is expected to be a record-breaking election year.
Just 40% of people believe in the news, which indicates a low and continued decline in public trust. In contrast, concerns about disinformation are growing, with over half of people worried about fake news. These patterns paint a worrying picture of the state of the media, as does the drop in the proportion of individuals who are very interested in the news.
It is obvious that swift action is required to combat misinformation and restore public confidence in the media ecosystem.
How 2024 will see changes in the media landscape#
1. Viewer tastes are changing#
Just over a fifth of the audience begins their news consumption on legitimate news websites, a number that is steadily dropping. Particularly among young people (Gen Z), there is a "weaker connection with news brands’ websites and apps – instead coming to news via search, social media or aggregators."
Celebrities and influencers receive greater attention from users of social networks like Instagram and TikTok than do journalists. On the other hand, journalists and news organizations are "still central to the conversation" on Twitter and Facebook.
2. The level of trust is low and keeps falling#
The Reuters Institute reports that just 40% of people believe "most news most of the time."
"It's evident that a lack of confidence in the media is both a cause and an effect of the growing polarization. All institutional leaders, especially the most dependable ones in business, need to understand how to navigate this "infodemic" by steering clear of false information and giving their audiences verified information."
According to the Reuters Institute survey, there is also a decline in public confidence in algorithms, with less than one-third of respondents saying that selecting news stories manually or through algorithms is a decent way to obtain the news.
3. Growing concerns are being raised about misinformation and deception#
When it comes to news, over half of those surveyed (56%) stated they are concerned about "figuring out what is real and fake on the internet."
Politics, COVID-19, the war in Ukraine, and climate change are the main subjects on which people claim to have seen inaccurate or misleading information.
During the US election in 2020, a survey of Facebook users revealed that news publishers with a reputation for disseminating false information received six times as many interactions on the platform as reliable news sources like CNN.
AI has the potential to make these threats much more severe in the lead-up to the 2024 election.
4. Avoidance of news is reaching all-time highs#
Less than half of respondents (48%) said they were "very" or "extremely" interested in news, a loss of 15 percentage points from 2017. Interest in the news is declining.
5. The difficult economic climate puts media business models at danger#
A cost-of-living issue brought on by excessive inflation has forced people to make difficult choices about news subscription payments. Just 17% of respondents in 20 affluent nations paid for any online news, which is the same percentage as the previous year.
How to restore faith in the media landscape#
1. Limiting the amount of time spent on websites that contain damaging content, especially misinformation#
To improve online safety, we must work together to combat the misuse of user-generated comments, uncover dishonest individuals disseminating false information, demonetize fake news, and undermine the establishment of echo chambers for extreme viewpoints. Adopting cutting-edge technological solutions and creating national policies are necessary for this. The Global Coalition for Digital Safety, an initiative of the World Economic Forum, is a public-private platform that aims to innovate and work together to combat harmful conduct and material online.
2. Raising consciousness on the reliability of news sources#
The emergence of gen-AI and the ensuing massive increase in online content production and distribution could result in a variety of very different outcomes: from a generalized mistrust of all online content across all media sources and formats to an increase in trust in reliable sources during periods of informational chaos.
In this regard, news organizations must raise public awareness of the fundamental values they uphold to guarantee the accuracy and quality of their reporting. These values include how they handle sources and the editing process, how they make reader recommendations, and how they use artificial intelligence (AI).
3. Improving media information literacy to enable people to recognize false information#
Improving literacy requires overcoming major obstacles and involves several intervention areas. Although traditional education is an important conduit, integrating it into its curricula can be difficult and time-consuming for the public-private sector, and other strategies (like corporate training, for instance) haven't always worked.
4. Reducing the dangers and taking advantage of the opportunities that generative AI presents#
It is a mistake to utilize generative AI to create news because, first, we know it cannot comprehend reality, and second, adding more content to an already congested information environment will not help it. Large language models and machine learning, on the other hand, can be helpful in increasing literacy by assisting some people in telling their own stories, in organizing journalistic reporting, and in developing new avenues for users to engage with the news. Artificial intelligence should be used to supplement journalism, not to replace it.
5. Enhancing credibility through openness and responsibility#
Both audience measurement and procedures to guarantee responsibility of all parties involved in the media value chain are essential. In order to evaluate the value created by engagement and consumption of high-quality content, it will be crucial, among other things, to make sure the impact of marketing efforts is monitored along the customer life-cycle analysis, moving beyond the individual medium or one-off interaction perspective.
6. Growing engagement and interest in news media#
Maintaining people's interest in news media requires making high-quality material more affordable and easily accessible. Democratizing information access is necessary to prevent the gap in media literacy from growing and to further deny lower-class citizens access to digital technology and the right to vote.
It will need a community effort to restore and preserve trust in the media ecosystem.#
Rebuilding trust in the media ecosystem and combating misinformation will require collaborative, multi-stakeholder effort; this is not an easy challenge if we are to protect democracies and journalism's future.
The Forum's industry leaders in the media and entertainment sector are developing an Industry Manifesto with the goal of emphasizing the vital role that journalism and high-quality content play in society and democracy, increasing public awareness of the values upheld by ethical media and entertainment companies, and assisting in the empowerment of consumers through the promotion of media information literacy. Participation from the media is invited in this endeavor.