[Enhanced media transparency and factchecking journalism at the core of restoring trust in media amid rapid spread of fake news]
Misinformation or disinformation spread by artificial intelligence technology was ranked as the top short-term danger facing the world according to the 2024 Global Risks Report by the World Economic Forum. In particular, WEF was concerned about the possibility of AI-generated false information influencing the outcome of major elections across the world as the year 2024 marks the biggest year of elections in history with at least 50 nations expected to vote. WEF’s concern is justified considering the recent surge in “fake news” with rapid technological advances. Indeed, the emergence of generative AI technology such as OpenAI’s ChatGPT has given easy access to a broader population in generating their own (fake) content which then quickly spreads across social media platforms, having signficant impacts on public opinion across the globe.
South Korea, which also faces an upcoming general election in April, is also concerned about the impact of AI-generated false news on the results of its election. As such, it has recently banned the use of deepfake image technology featuring politicians in the run-up to the election. Further, it is also mulling over strengthening legal penalties for the distribution of misinformation. However, it should be noted that regulations implemented by the government cannot catch up with the galloping advances in AI technology as the technological advances will constantly fall out of regulation domains. Therefore, in this context, the role of traditional/legacy media has garnered renewed importance as it holds the key to curbing the influence of falsely generated content by serving as a credible source of information that can inform the public.
In the context of Korea, there are many ways in which legacy media can combat the proliferation of unverified information. Firstly, Korean media needs to stop using the word “fake news (가짜뉴스)” and instead start using words such as “misinformation” and “disinformation” as recommended by the European Union. This is because once the word “news” is attached to the term itself, people’s mistrust becomes directed to newspaper companies or media outlets that produce news articles when, in reality, content containing falsehood is often generated by individuals such as YouTubers, and influencers. Therefore, distinctions should be made between falsehoods spread by individuals with the intention of sowing fear and suspicion and accidental errors in reporting. Using terms such as misinformation and disinformation will help prevent further erosion of trust in the media companies.
Secondly, Korean media should implement more rigorous fact-checking process and improve overall transparency in its reporting and editing process as a distinguished mark of professionalism to restore trust in the media. Currently, Korea is struggling with low public trust in the media as less than three out of 10 Koreans express faith in the country’s journalism according to the 2023 Digital News Report published by the Reuters Institute. As such, going forward, Korean journalists and media companies should enhance the process of verifying information and explicitly indicating the source origin when citing information to raise the trustworthiness of their articles. Further, when falsehood or errors are detected in their reporting, they should promptly issue a state of correction. In the case of online articles, the media companies should give the public access to fully view the history of corrections made in the article or a list of deleted articles. Enhanced transparency will inevitably lead to enhanced public trust in media.
While working to raise transparency in its editing and reporting process, Korean media should also go back to the basics of journalism which will entail journalists and reporters generating and covering their own exclusive stories. One of the reasons why Korea suffers from low trust in media is because the country’s media ecosystem in recent years has been marred by reporters replicating stories already written by other reporters, typically by directly copying and pasting already published content. Such a practice has also amplified the risk of erroneous reporting. To set their content apart from ChatGPT-generated articles and raise the credibility of their articles, Korean journalists should embrace the basic principles of journalism and devote more effort to generating distinguished and insightful articles through exclusive reporting.
To conclude, the rapid spread of AI-generated misinformation and disinformation has undermined the public trust in traditional media. In Korea, concerns have also been raised over its impact in influencing the outcome of the upcoming general election in April. In such an environment, the role of traditional media has become even more important to help guide the public as the election approaches. Korean media needs to play active roles in restoring public trust by serving as a credible source of information. As discussed, this mainly revolves around enhancing transparency and factchecking journalism and publishing distinguished content that can set itself apart from AI-generated articles.
However, efforts should also go both ways. While the role and responsibility of Korean media are important, Korean readers themselves should stop being the passive consumer of information and enhance their ability to critically assess and digest the published content. Therefore, going forward, there should also be wider public discussions at a national level on ways to raise media literacy to help the public detect content containing unverified information as this will effectively minimize the impact of disinformation on public opinion.