KUALA LUMPUR: Mainstream media outlets must continue to strive for high-quality journalism in order to build public trust and help the people to differentiate between fake news, misinformation and credible information.
Australia-based Southeast Asia region media expert Dr Ross Tapsell said this was imperative although many traditional news outlets were struggling for viable business modules following the rise of social media platforms.
The senior lecturer and researcher at the Australian National University’s College of Asia and the Pacific said if news outlets failed in their effort to earn the public’s trust, the people will turn to alternative sources of information that are widely shared on social media.
“How do we improve the quality of journalism at a time where the revenues of mainstream media is being taken out by (social media) platforms such as Facebook.
“Although it is a difficult challenge, it is something that Malaysia certainly needs to work towards. This is to ensure that there are credible news outlets that the people can rely upon,” he told reporters here today.
He was the main speaker at the “Building Malaysia’s Resistance Against Fake News: Diagnosis and Antidote” seminar jointly organised by international grassroots journalism organisation Hacks Hackers Kuala Lumpur chapter and independent pollster Merdeka Centre with support from Google Malaysia.
To illustrate his points, Tapsell cited the case involving the deadly bush fire, which had devastated several parts of Australia killing billions of animals.
“There are fires raging in Australia at the moment. And there has been a lot of support for the national broadcaster ABC (Australian Broadcasting Corporation).
“When people look for important and reliable news, they turn to the national broadcaster, they turn to ABC to check on how the fires are affecting the community.
“That is such an important part of a media landscape to have a quality public broadcaster and that is certainly something Malaysia could work towards as well,” he said.
Tapsell also praised the ruling Pakatan Harapan coalition for scrapping the Anti-Fake News Act, a legislation that was formulated and passed by the previous Barisan Nasional (BN) government.
“Abolishing the Anti-Fake News (Act) is a good decision by the current government since the terms of the legislation were very vague especially how fake news was defined.
“We have seen in other countries around the region when there are vague laws governing fake news, it (the legislation) becomes very easily politicised.”
Earlier during the seminar, Tapsell outlined several suggestions on how countries in the region can stop the dissemination of fake news rather than formulate and enforce draconian laws.
His suggestion included improving and increasing internet connection especially in rural areas since millions among Southeast Asia’s population were “literally sitting on the digital divide bridge”.
Millions of people in the region, he said, were using the internet to merely browse Facebook and check their WhatsApp messages since they do not have access to fast connection.
“And a lot of these people don’t have fast broadband, they don’t have a lot of mobile application, they are not necessarily googling (searching the correct information on the internet) things.
“Some of the methods that fact checkers suggested to solve disinformation and misinformation are not going to work in Malaysia due to the problem related to the nature of people using the internet outside of the urban areas.
“When the signal (internet connection) is not very strong in particular areas, it means that people are really going to use smartphones and internet for simple messaging and social media applications.
“Increasing internet speed and access is a good thing. The more access people have to information, the more they are exposed to wider range of information on the internet.”