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About Eugene weekly. (Eugene, Oregon) 1993-current | View Entire Issue (March 16, 2017)
News Fake D id you absolutely love that article you read about Bernie Sanders on Occupy Democrats and agree with every word? Did you hate that story on NPR because the public radio network reported on the timber industry as if it had valid points on cutting down trees? Before you pull a Trump and scream “fake news!” and before you post “media blackout!” on your Facebook feed and accuse the media of not covering a specific news topic, take a minute to think about what fake news actually is. “Fake news means so many things,” says Todd Milbourn, a former daily news reporter turned journalism instructor at the University of Oregon. “At the outset it was really clear — Macedonian teenagers in their basement hacking away on articles ginned up to make some money on the election.” But a few short months later, Milbourn says, “everybody has their own definition.” Milbourn has been doing a series of presentations around Oregon on fake news, together with fellow UO journalism instructor and former daily reporter Lisa Heyamoto. They will give a talk on the topic at the City Club of Eugene April 7. There are fake news articles fabricated out of whole cloth and pushed on social media, Milbourn says, “but you also have ways information is amplified in different ways, articles that are poorly sourced, articles that are accurate line-by-line but the overall tone and takeaway are done disingenuously.” The “silver lining,” Heyamoto says, is that “we are having a national conversation about credible information.” It’s long overdue, she says. “The problem is we are having it as shouting matches.” So how do we combat fake news? “Good old fashioned critical thinking.” Contested by Camilla Mortensen Think about, she says: Who wrote it? about Trump than Clinton. “The final NPR’S ELIZABETH Where did the information come from? story totals were 461 pieces with Trump JENSEN What is the purpose of the article? as the main focus to 262 focused on “But that takes a lot of time,” Clinton,” she writes. Heyamoto says. She says that we used Such ethical transparency is some- to have dedicated news time where you thing readers can use to evaluate their sat down with the physical paper and news sources. said, “Now I will consume the news.” “Journalists can be more transpar- But these days we read the news in ent in their reporting,” Heyamoto says. moments waiting for the bus, waiting to “Part of the wonder of journalism is the way that you put that story out there. pick up the kids — in the middle of “all People have gotten used to not seeing be- the things that come at you in life.” hind the curtain and not seeing how hard And on social media, Heyamoto says, journalists are working to get the news.” we get both neutral and partisan news She says the hallmarks of a good mixed in with kid and food pictures — media outlet are “verification, triangu- “all of this info in the same moment.” lation, transparency and context.” She now sets aside time that is And when it comes to “media dedicated to news consumption “where PHOTO BY BRIAN BULL/KLCC blackouts,” Milbourn says, “Let’s look I get a foundation on what’s going on — at the difference between the media and I treat social media as a dessert.” and journalism — journalism is a subset of that with an Milbourn compares reading the news to buying a emphasis on verification.” dishwasher: “One thing is, if you buy a dishwasher you In fake news, he says, you don’t see verification. Real are going to go on Consumer Reports, do a little research, journalism uses “on the ground shoe leather,” he says, ask ‘What model am I looking for?’ and ‘What will work and public records requests, “not just sharing things on for me?’” It’s a deliberate investment, he says, rather than social media, but picking up the phone, talking to people the passive way we consume social media. at Standing Rock” and getting information that can be On a national level, NPR has an ombudsman, Elizabeth verified and tested independently. Jensen, who looks into that media organization’s ethics, That takes time. And money. fairness and accuracy. Jensen reports to NPR’s CEO, not “Take that moment,” Milbourn says, “and do some the newsroom, she told EW on a recent swing through research on ‘what is my media diet.’” See what fits your needs. Eugene. She presents the public’s opinion to the newsroom Then, he says, “Pay for that stuff. Spend your time there.” and explains the newsroom to the public, she says, and she With news subscriptions costing only a few dollars a doesn’t speak for NPR. month, Milbourn says, we should “put as much thought Jensen points to a Nov. 16, 2016, post-election column into the media we consume as we do in buying a in which she addressed NPR’s reporting on the presidential dishwasher.” campaigns and listener complaints that they heard more Truths EW talked to Samantha Swindler, a columnist for The Oregonian and president of the Oregon Territory chapter of the Society of Professional Journalists, to get her take on the media chaos. What forces — historically, socially, politically — have led to the current distrust and suspicion of the media? I honestly don’t know if I’m the best person to answer this question. I see a lot of forces at play — mainly new technology that allows anyone to create a “news site” and disruption of the traditional media revenue model — that make this historically unique. But I also don’t know if distrust of the media is a new thing. Maybe what’s unique is that the definition of “media” has so greatly expanded. Is this unprecedented in U.S. history, either in terms of public attitudes toward the media or the current administration’s attacks (Trump’s “enemy of the people” claim)? Maybe what’s different now is how little news people seem to consume. When I hang out with non-news people, I realize that most Americans don’t follow the news. They don’t care. They see stuff on their social media feeds and that’s it. 12 REAL JOURNALISM TAKES TIME — AND READING IT TAKES THOUGHT March 16, 2017 • eugeneweekly.com AN INTERVIEW WITH OREGONIAN COLUMNIST SAMANTHA SWINDLER by Rick Levin What have the media done to contribute to this attitude? Or, from another angle, what set the stage for so many people to be able to dismiss reporting outright as “fake” news? Where did we fall short? I don’t know if I can point to a specific moment or action, but there are trends that I find have hurt media credibility. Of course, there’s the creation of the 24- hour news cycle and the constant need to say something on-air, even where there’s nothing new or substantive to add about breaking news. That has led to inaccurate information as stories are developing. We also don’t do ourselves any favors when we chase “trending” viral news and just regurgitate it without additional context or critical thinking. When we’re just sharing other people’s cat videos or viral Facebook posts, how do we distinguish what we’re doing as journalism rather than just social media? Ah, but I see the flipside of this one as well. How do you pay for journalism if you don’t get the clicks for cat videos? I’m oversimplifying with that statement, but fewer people are paying for journalism, so it’s harder to fund the meatier stuff. SAMANTHA SWINDLER What would be the best response from the press in terms of combating negative public percep- tions? We need to be more trans- parent in how we collect the news, why we do what we do and why we make the news decisions we make. There’s been more of that, but I think total transparency about the journalism process, engag- ing with readers and viewers about our process, will help. Transparency is more impor- tant than objectivity. Do you see this as a larger crisis in attitudes toward truth, verification and the First Amend- ment? We have a larger crisis in the lack of civics education. I think we’ve become lazy when it comes to civic involvement. Isn’t there a famous quote, that the price of liberty is eternal vigilance? We’ve not been vigilant. Vote. Run for office. Vet your news source. Question your assumptions. Consume ideas that question your worldview. All those things are connected, in my mind.
