Column | They want to change the media from a watchdog to a retriever

Again let's go The US presidential primaries begin on Monday in Iowa. The former president Donald Trump's the bolt cannon fires at full blast Nikki Haleywho allegedly lies, loves China, and is funded by Democrats or globalists.

I am on Trump's mailing list because I attended his events in the United States. The former president has direct contact with tens of millions of voters, which has made him independent of traditional media. He can claim anything as long as no one intervenes.

In Finland, Trump's media school has gained a lot of followers, as a star student Sanna Marin (sd). The power of these influencers is based on the fact that online clickers are more interested in people than in faceless institutions. Sdp can't post a butt picture of himself.

After all, even traditional media has its own minor role in the media strategy of influencers: picking up the sticks thrown at it.

The year 2016 during the election, the American media was obsessed with Trump. Trump threw his sticks at the media, i.e. crazy things. The media made news, audience numbers rose, Trump's support grew.

After the election, I had a hangover. Liberal media like CNN and The New York Times, created a new business model of opposing Trump. They decided to close their right eye. Formerly of The New York Times the slogan was: All the news that can be printed. Now the unofficial guideline became: News that our audience likes. Circulation grew when the magazine was filled with stories that strengthened the readers' world view. Head of editorial department James Bennett was fired in 2020 after publishing an op-ed by a Republican senator.

Media has lost its former gatekeeper role, but turning into an echo chamber of one's own truth is clearly not a good solution. How would journalism manage to maintain its importance and the public's trust in the new era?

This was considered by The Washington Post columnist Philip Bump media foundation Nieman Labin on the blog. According to him, journalists have tried to pretend that everything is as it was before, even though the foundation of the media is being eroded from left and right. Many people would like traditional media to disappear from messing up their games.

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However, one of the provocations always makes the news.

“Partly because we've ignored the way our work is distorted, the bubble surrounding and protecting an unreal world view has inflated and intensified. More and more voices reinforce the same false claims, making them seem more true and true thoughts more false.”

Bump doesn't have a solution to the situation either, but he encourages the media to defend their own values: “We have to stand up and defend our work. We have to defend the work of our colleagues and the work of our competitors.”

in Finland the situation is not as bad as in the US. Trust in the media has remained high, because it is not as easy to sow suspicion in a small country, although we also have enough media gravediggers, starting at the ministerial level.

Sticks are also thrown. For example Jussi Halla-ahon The criminal reports made by (ps) and demands about the MP's parentage and Yle's surgeries were widely reported, even though they are not related to the presidential election.

Could the media just ignore attention-seeking provocations? This is what readers often suggest. In the US, some media outlets tried that, but it didn't work, because one of them was always repor
ting anyway. If the president of the United States or the speaker of the parliament makes something surprising – no matter how crazy – opening, then it has to be reported.

If the media picks up the sticks thrown at it without thinking, it is being exploited, but if it starts thinking too much about why any stick is thrown or whose sticks it is picking up, the media is accused of bias. In between, you should find space for your own thinking, journalism.

The author is the person responsible for the editorial and opinion editorial.