Democracy in danger when lies go unchecked

When politicians fail to call out a lie by one of their own, it can have a dampening effect on democracy Calling out disinformation is becoming increasingly difficult as it reverberates on social media. That's enough of a problem, but when faulty public perceptions are used to formulate government policy, democracy is in trouble. Politicians and journalists have always had a combative relationship ... but blaming the media for everything now seems to be a national pastime. The rise, rise and rise of social media; a deputy Prime Minister who's virtually declared war on journalists; and the failure of government MPs to call out lies; it's all helping to further deteriorate the levels of trust in the Fourth Estate. Last year the AUT research centre for Journalism, Media and Democracy published its fourth Trust in News report, recording a downward trend that was already evident in 2020. General trust in news in 2023 declined from 45 percent the year before, to 42 percent. About 69 percent of us avoid news often, sometimes or occasionally. Today on The Detail we're calling in a couple of media experts - our executive producer and Newsroom's media journalist Mark Jennings, who talks to Victoria University communications lecturer Peter Thompson. They look at the effects of the deteriorating lack of faith in main stream media, including the effects on government policy."In my 22 years as head of TV3 news and seven years as co-editor of Newsroom I've seen the public trust in the media decline to a point where it is impacting our democracy," says Jennings. Thompson, who has spent most of his working life observing the media, agrees. "I think there's always been a degree of scepticism of media of all varieties," he says. "What we're seeing now is a deep-seated cynicism towards any kind of media, and particularly so-called mainstream media, and I think that's been exacerbated by the huge quantities of disinformation, or at least dubious information, that circulates through social media."Jennings says mainstream media plays a really important role in democracy, "yet we see some of the most important figures in democracy - politicians - attacking the media." Thompson describes that as corrosive. "I think it's quite problematic that politicians often try to score points on issues related to media by attacking the opposition's policy - often they're cheap shots and not well thought out." …Go to this episode on rnz.co.nz for more details