The director of elDiario.es, Ignacio Escolar, and the professor of Journalism at the University of the Basque Country (UPV/EHU), María José Cantalapiedra, held a dialogue this Monday in Bilbao about the challenges faced by the media. communication in a context like the current one in which misinformation and fake news aim to influence public opinion. “We provide a public service that is a citizen’s right,” solemnized Ignacio Escolar, who highlighted the need for information professionals to ask “uncomfortable questions.”
The event, organized by elDiario.es/Euskadi and the University of the Basque Country (UPV/EHU), began with the intervention of Iker Rioja Andueza, director of elDiario.es/Euskadi and Ane Irene del Valle, dean of the Faculty of Sciences Social Sciences and Communication of the UPV/EHU, who has vindicated the role of the Faculty of Information Sciences in research and teaching in times “of mistrust and discredit that the journalistic profession faces.” “In the digital swarm in which news is consumed, the quality and truth of the stories are increasingly vulnerable. The invisibility of sources, the atomization of messages and the speed and massive reach of information are conditions in which truthfulness and rigor are undermined, which constitutes a threat to freedom, respect, and ideological plurality. and the critical thinking that we defend from the university level,” he solemnized.
The dialogue began with the reflection launched by María José Cantalapiedra on whether the media should abandon social networks like X, where the algorithm takes precedence over truthful information. Escolar has pointed out that this debate existed in the editorial office of elDiario.es. “The argument in favor of leaving is that the rules of X are being set by Elon Musk, a person with interests, with a very clear political agenda behind it.” In this regard, he added that social media algorithms show content based on each person’s prejudices. “It gives you what you want to read, what generates your attention, often misinformation, because what they want you spend as much time as possible on its application.” “But if all the serious media leave X because it is a place of misinformation, there will be even more misinformation,” he concluded.
The professor of Journalism at the University of the Basque Country (UPV/EHU), María José Cantalapiedra, has highlighted the importance of citizens actively seeking information instead of letting it reach them as a way to combat misinformation. “An informed reader is not the same as a reader who stumbles upon news,” added Escolar, who highlighted the role of the partners of elDiario.es. “It is very important that there are people who want to pay for a newspaper like ours because otherwise we would not exist.” And he added: “They are partners, not subscribers. A subscriber pays for closed content, our partners pay for something they could read for free because they know that everyone can read it.”
After the dialogue, a question period was opened, initiated by the elected rector of the UPV/EHU, Joxerra Bengoetxea, who reflected on the role that the media sometimes play in the construction of the story, eliminating parts of the information so that it does not is compromised. The director of elDiario.es, Ignacio Escolar, has pointed out that reality “is complex” and that it is essential for a journalist to tell all the information and not eliminate parts for fear that the reader may not like it. In this regard, Cantalapiedra added that the UPV/EHU “must play a primary role against misinformation.”
You can see the complete conversation between Ignacio Escolar and María José Cantalapiedra again, here:
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