Passions: Why I love the mainstream media – Ian Johnston

Social media algorithms and politicised news are walling people off from contrary points of view that might challenge their opinions or improve understanding

Populists like Donald Trump lambast the 'mainstream media' for reporting the truth (Picture: Tom Pennington/Getty Images)

Mandy Rice-Davies’ famous quip – remembered as “well, he would say that, wouldn’t he?”, although the actual quote was slightly different – is foremost in my mind as I write this article. Here am I, a time-served journalist with the ‘mainstream media’, telling of my passion for the industry that pays my wages.

However, if you can look past my obvious self-interest, I hope to explain why I value the mainstream media, for all its faults, and the alternative is worse. The organisations I have worked for – with one brief exception – all wanted to tell the truth, to get things right. They were also, to greater or lesser degrees, interested in a diversity of opinions.

The alternatives to the mainstream media tend to blur the line between truth and opinion. So, you can now read and watch right-wing or left-wing news, as opposed to simply “the news”. And the content – my main source here is YouTube – is relentlessly on message.

Politicised platforms seem to regularly offer videos showing how someone has “destroyed” a politician they don’t like. This may sometimes be true, but why are the politicians they like seemingly immune to destruction? Hosts will spend an interview agreeing with everything their guest has to say. I don't think the ‘why is this lying b****** lying to me’ approach is the correct one either, but here the interviewers are almost acting like PR advisers for their guests.

With social media algorithms pushing more of the same, this long ago started to grate even when I broadly agree with what is being said. It feels like an endless, droning monologue. Isn’t life supposed to be about dialogue?

With large numbers of people seemingly existing within social media bubbles, the result may be that we stop even trying to understand opposing views and the people who hold them, that we forget how to ‘disagree agreeably’. I think the effect can already be seen in the various ‘culture war’ issues that many people try to avoid because of their ‘toxicity’, a word that has become increasingly relevant in modern society.

It’s no surprise that populists often berate the ‘mainstream media’. Politicians like Donald Trump, who want their supporters to hate their political opponents, cry “fake news” because they have no real arguments when newspapers report the truth. Without unbiased, honest reporting, democracy and society will be in real trouble.