By Lutfi Dervishi
In a midnight conversation after a TV show, I learned who had put the headline a few years ago: “Well-known analyst Lutfi Dervishi is arrested, but…”. The event was essentially (half) true. A person named Lutfi Dervishi was arrested by the police. But apart from the first and last name, nothing else was true. The event took place in Kosovo and the double namesake is a doctor by profession.
"He was a master at creating clickable headlines..." a young colleague put an end to the conversation and immediately remembered that the portal's publisher himself had called me and said: "We're leaving this news for a while because we're doing very well... (with clicks).
This event was unimaginable in the last decade of the last century and unthinkable in the first decade of the new century. Not anymore.
What was unimaginable is now inevitable.
The old world where the journalist/editor/publisher was responsible for the quality of the news (the information commodity) has been overturned and today in the "new world" anyone with a cell phone in their hand (3.47 million cell phones were registered in Albania in 2023) can become a journalist.
Today, media and consumers are facing a new era, where the boundaries between truth, news, and entertainment are more blurred than ever. From the impact of technology and social media, to the financial pressure for clicks, the media landscape has changed dramatically.
Trying to find a healthy balance between ethics and media economics has become an almost impossible mission. In the post-truth era, where truth is not what matters, but the emotion that the news evokes, anything is possible.
Traditional Media: The Stumbling Block Between Ethics and Interest
Traditional media such as television, newspapers and radio, but also new media are facing an existential challenge. In an effort to maintain their audience and survive financially, many media outlets have sacrificed ethics in exchange for bombastic headlines that bring clicks and advertisements. Factual reporting is often replaced by sensationalism, while the principle of “verify before publishing” has turned into “publish, then correct.”
It is feared that last year more bombs exploded on portals and social networks than in Ukraine or Gaza.
Recent EU reports on the media in Albania have highlighted precisely this phenomenon: the lack of professional ethics, the great political and economic pressure on journalists and the fact that some media outlets have become “marketing branches” of political parties or business interests. In such an environment, journalists are faced with an existential dilemma: to choose between maintaining their integrity and preserving their job.
The new world, all the journalistic people
With the massive spread of social networks and artificial intelligence, the world of media has been turned upside down. Today, anyone with a smartphone is a “potential journalist.” A photo, a video, or a post on TikTok/Instagram is enough to spark a national debate. And that’s where “politician media” comes in – where leaders publish “news” directly on their social networks, bypassing the filter of traditional media.
In the old world, politicians and government officials were the object of scanning, scrutiny, and control by the media; in the “new world,” it is no longer surprising that the opposite is true, where politicians and government officials scan, criticize, and control the media.
If we used to say that “the reporter is not to blame” because he was only reporting the news, today the reporter and the news in the “alternative media” have become one.
But the main problem lies in the fact that these "alternative media" do not follow any ethical code. Fake news, information manipulation and disinformation have become the daily menu. Artificial intelligence has complicated things even more: with deepfake videos and algorithms that promote content based on the emotions they provoke and not on the value of information.
In a country where demographics remain the challenge, but which still has 56 television stations, 200 cable TV stations and over 1,000 portals, the biggest battle is no longer for truth and accountability. Truth is no longer god. The new god is clicks.
2. What if 7 billion people had watched this video?
A producer at one of the most ethical television stations on the market told me about a "reel" that had been removed for ethical reasons, BUT which immediately received 7 thousand views.
-What if this controversial reel had received 7 billion views, I asked, what would have changed?
-Nothing, but it would have gone viral.
One of the most disturbing trends today is the influence of business and click capitalism. Instead of investing in research articles or quality news, most focus on viral “news”. Articles like “Look what X did on the beach”, “You won’t believe what Xi told Y-psilon”, have become the mainstay of online news, while few deal with news that has importance/impact on everyone’s life.
This approach has degraded not only the quality of information, but also the public itself, who increasingly consumes time (the most precious thing) with entertaining videos.
According to the latest survey, trust in the media is one of the lowest in the region, at just 30%. 15 years ago, the media was one of the most trusted institutions in the country. Nearly 70% of respondents said they trusted the news they watched.
Is everything we see true?
It may be true, but not necessarily useful.
Zuckerberg’s recent decision to remove fact-checkers from Meta’s platforms (Facebook and Instagram) is a wake-up call for media ethics. When facts are not checked and every piece of information is treated as “valid” just because it is popular, journalism loses its essence. In this chaos, the public finds it increasingly difficult to distinguish truth from propaganda, manipulation, or rumors.
Freedom of expression, one of the greatest achievements, is being used as a label for the spread of fake news. Freedom of expression means listening to and watching things you don’t like. Freedom of expression also includes “hate speech.” But the question is: is this what we need? And while there are still journalists trying to maintain professional standards, most take the easy way out: “publish/post/broadcast whatever the hell you want.”
Today the public is being taught to be fed by “analysts/commentators” who have never written in their lives and are incapable of writing a news/comment/opinion, but are capable of beautifully telling “fairy tales”. And the public has been dying for fiery “news” since the time of the fire in the caves. Gossip and “the lives of others” are transforming the media into entertainment platforms.
“Journalists/commentators” no longer report news, they are becoming news themselves. Harnessing the power of TV, well-known screen figures are using their popularity to push personal or commercial agendas. Evening political shows have become spectacles where serious debate is sacrificed for jokes and theatrical moments because these go viral on ‘social media’.
And since some get a lot of likes on social networks, the media is also following the same path by putting themselves at the service of social networks.
Is there hope for ethics?
Despite the not very optimistic picture, with interesting news for the public there is still hope for news of interest to the public.
Media education, a term that does not mean media education, but public education about the information it consumes, has been applied in Albania for some time. This effort for the consumer himself to distinguish reliable sources from dubious ones, truth from half-truth, information from disinformation, news from propaganda and reality from fantasy, has passed the initial stage.
Despite the wave of viral "news" on the market, there are several new media outlets independent of domestic funding that investigate, write critical articles, and serve the public interest.
At the end of the day, the media is a mirror of society. While the pressure of technology, politics and business is increasing, it is the responsibility of everyone; journalists, media executives and the public to seek and protect ethics and integrity. It is a battle to be informed and not deceived. Because, as the saying goes: “The media is like a horse, it goes where the rider leads.”
Today, the knight is not just the journalist, but each of us. (A2 Televizion)
