Fake news is a ‘magic button’ for politicians seeking to erode trust

During the session, Deborah Clay, national news director at the Australian Radio Network explains how “if there is fake news, then that trust starts to erode. I think we really need to crystallise what fake news is.”

The Age’s news director Michelle Griffen agrees, telling the Radio Alive conference audience that “the words fake news are just thrown around like confetti now. Politicians use it so often that I think I’m going to start keeping a log of how often it’s used, particularly when we have election campaigns, because they think it’s the magic button.

“It’s bandied around around news judgements. If one were to cover an event that has a commercial interest, I don’t think that’s fake news, it’s just you’ve decided that that’s newsworthiness in the commercial product you’re covering. You can have a different discussion about if that’s the role of news, but it’s not fakeness. It’s not the counter narrative of guesswork and conspiracy and lies.

“It isn’t new, it’s always been there, always.”