Why you cannot combat fake news without addressing diversity

Last week the British government published a report on “fake news” and how to combat it. The report was titled “Disinformation and ‘fake news’”, it was 108 pages long, mainly focused on the “evils” of social media and even went so far as labelling Facebook as “digital gangsters”

The problem with the report is that it had one glaring ommission, it did not mention diversity once.

So what on earth has diversity got to do with fake news?

Let me explain.

Much of the discussion around “fake news”, focuses on the people creating it, writing it and spreading it. People rarely look at why people “choose” to consume fake news, as opposed to reading and watching news from more reputable news sources.

Most people don't like the idea that anybody actively "chooses" fake news. The conventional thinking seems to be that people are just passive recipients of news stories and are fooled by fake news stories on their social media feeds. All we need to do to remedy the problem is educate people to be more vigilant to spot fake stories, crack down on "evil social media" and extoll the virtues of mainstream news sources and how reliable their facts are.

But I think that ignores hundreds of years of journalism - people have turned to news sources they like and turned away from news sources they do not like.

People make choices.

They make choices as to whether to believe the Telegraph or the Guardian, the make choices as to whether to believe the Sun or the Mirror. The idea that people would suddenly abandon this and be completely passive recipients of news stories from news organisations they have never heard of doesn't seem to make sense.

There is an element of choice - the question is why are they choosing to read fake news from unreputable news sources?   

THINK LIKE AN ECONOMIST

Now, for people who read this blog regularly you will know I love economics, I have a degree in economics and I’m married to an economist so I often view issues through an economic lens.

Therefore when I look at the problem of fake news I think of it as an economics problem.

In very simple economic terms fake news is a product.

And to understand any product, be that washing up powder, newspapers, drugs or even fake news, you have to understand the idea of “supply and demand”. 

The people who make fake news and disseminate it are the “supply” and the people who read it are the “demand”.

So what causes some people to leave reputable mainstream media and consume media from sources that are less than reputable?

THE SUPPY AND DEMAND FOR FAKE NEWS

Everyone keeps looking at “fixing” the “supply” of fake news by making our reporting more accurate, or cracking down on social media that spreads untrue stories.

But any economist will tell you that if you want to stop a product you also have to look at its “demand”. In fact any police officer will tell you that if you want to crack down on illegal drugs you have to deal with both the supply AND the demand.

It won’t be until we address the “demand” for fake news rather than constantly looking at the supply that we will be able to combat the problem.

And I believe key to addressing the demand for fake news is the issue of diversity in newsrooms up and down the country. 

LACK OF DIVERSITY IN MAINSTREAM MEDIA CREATES DEMAND

Unsurprisingly and depressingly the government report did not mention diversity once.

Let me explain why diversity is so important when it comes to combating fake news.

The BBC, New York Times and other mainstream news sources constantly go on about how accurate their news is in an attempt to combat fake news. However most people do not believe that BBC and other mainstream news sources have got their facts WRONG.

What a lot of people believe is that there are important stories that are being ignored or specific elements of a story that are not being covered.

GRENFELL TOWER - CASE STUDY IN LACK OF DIVERSITY

We saw this in the aftermath of the Grenfell Tower fire. People wanted to know why journalists had not covered the issues that led to this tragedy before the fire. Veteran news reporter, Jon Snow, lamented that the fire demonstrated that most media was “comfortably with the elite, with little awareness, contact or connection with those not of the elite” and that the fire had shown this lack of connection was “dangerous”.

Jon Snow went on to say “Grenfell speaks to us all about our own lack of diversity (in newsrooms), and capacity to reach into the swaths of western society with whom we have no connection.”

What it demonstrated is that for millions of people in the UK there are very important stories that are central to their lives yet are simply not being covered due to the lack of diversity in newsrooms.

If people believe that critical news stories are not being covered by mainstream media then they will seek them out in “non-mainstream” media.

And these non-mainstream news sources is exactly where fake news can flourish 

BEING ACCURATE IS NOT ENOUGH - DIVERSITY IS KEY.

The BBC, New York Times, CNN etc boasting about how accurate / truthful their news reporting is, will not solve fake news if people believe that there are other stories that they are not being covered.

Until we can fix the reason people “demand” fake news and want to consume stories from non-conventional news sources we will never be able to put a stop to fake news. And key to that is restoring people’s faith that newsroooms will not only report stories that are relevant to a white middle class demographic and from a white privileged perspective.

Interestingly the issue of fire safety at Grenfell was covered before the fire but not by any mainstream media but in a blog post written by “non-qualified” journalists. It is precisely these kind of unverified blog posts people who are trying to crack down on fake news want us to read less. Incidents like Grenfell and the mainstream media’s diversity fail is exactly why millions of people will continue to demand these unverified news sources. 

Which all brings me to my main point:

Diversity is vital to combating fake news. It is vital to a functioning media. And not to be over-dramatic but it is vital to our very democracy.

But as long as it is seen as a “side issue” or just a question of “increasing headcounts” of women, BAMEs or disabled people rather than core to the functioning of our society we will never be able to solve some of the biggest issues facing us.

The fact diversity was not mentioned once in the latest government report on fake news is concerning. It is also concerning that the committee who oversaw the did not have a single person of colour sitting on it (although they did take evidence from a range of different people). The fear is the report demonstrates a fundamental lack of understanding of just how central diversity is to the media and our journalism. 

Let’s all make sure that we do not have debates in the future of media that does not recognise the importance of diversity.