Who cares about The Press?

“Press, media, news, social media, journalism, reporting, digital media” …. At a time when freedom of information and truth are under attack, it strikes me that there is utter confusion about what these words mean and how to use them.

Today (May 3) is World Press Freedom Day and I believe we need a new lexicon to describe and differentiate what we mean by journalism.

Perhaps we should drop or better define the term “the Press” which sounds like something from a bygone era, let’s be clear about what professional journalists bring that others cannot, let’s clear up the difference between paid-for journalism and information attractively peddled on social media by politicos, corporations and organizations with a mission.

People who consume media (almost everyone!) need greater clarity about what it is they are consuming. What has value and what doesn’t. What’s fake (it’s getting harder and harder to tell) and what is true … or true enough to take an informed view on.

Those 10 journalists who died last week while trying to bring us "the story" from Afghanistan had clarity about what they were trying to do. We need clarity about why.

#WorldPressFreedomDay