Why should we care?

With social media and a 24/7 news cycle, how do we make sense of what we hear and read? At a time when everyone can publish news to a mass audience, vying for people’s attention with hashtags and clickbait, it is essential for all of us to think about why journalism matters.

In today’s digital environment, it can be difficult to define news and distinguish it from the many other types of content. As people share information of all kinds on the internet, the news audience must learn how to evaluate credibility and understand the idea of what journalism should be.

How do journalists determine what news to report? How do they go about gathering information? Whether taken on by professionals or citizens, journalism can be a difficult work. To critically evaluate the quality of news content, we first need to understand the production process.

In order to construct the news story about an event or phenomenon, journalists must rely on evidence, but what constitutes good evidence? It is essential to analyse the sources of information and evaluate its relevance to the news so that we can make our own judgments.

It is often said that “the media is biased.” In some ways, that is true, but what is bias in the first place? Don't we all hold biases that can influence what we choose to believe? How can we distinguish what might be a neutral fact from what might be based on someone's personal beliefs and opinions?

Questionable rumours, dubious claims, fake photos and videos, conspiracy theories, and other types of deliberately misleading content are now part of our online life. In order to identify dependable facts, we all need to learn the tools and techniques used for fact-checking and social media verification.

Human nature, political circumstances, business interests, religious beliefs, ethical dilemmas, there are a number of factors that could make journalism go astray. We need to learn about the range of factors and influences affecting the news and journalistic practices in our society.