Polar opposites - DAWN.com

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WHEN I started teaching journalism in 2017, I taught about filter bubbles, a term coined by Eli Pariser in 2011 about algorithms showing us content we like (short version). Then, Pariser expressed fears about how such bubbles were causing polarisation that would impact elections and ultimately democracy. In class, we discussed our role as journalists and how to ensure fairness in reporting so audiences got a variety of views they weren’t getting on their feeds.
With that in mind, how do you think journalists fared in the reporting of Imran Khan’s removal from power last month? Did audiences receive fair, balanced, verified information or was it talking heads screaming at the top of their lungs their version of the truth?
Watching various channels play out events from that long night, I was reminded of a now oft-used quote by former senator Daniel P. Moynihan in his column in The Washington Post in 1983: “You are entitled to your opinion. But you are not entitled to your own facts.”
We can see this in Pakistan right now: different parties are operating in what seem like different realities, with different sets of facts or different reactions to those facts.Social media has made a bad situation worse.
Disinformation spreads faster than facts.
I wonder if journalism can regain its gatekeeping powers lost in the last decade to social media, a lot of technological innovations and of course, its own crises.
Journalism appears to be hostage to algorithms, artificial...

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