Abandon trust. We all have to be journalists now

In our strange new world, there’s a tried-and-tested way to deal with the information overflow…

Even if you are not a journalist, and don’t know any such creature, it’s obvious that the way news is made and consumed has changed dramatically over the past few decades.

What used to be a quiet sojourn with the morning newspaper is now a news feed on your phone; what used to be the news on the TV at 8pm is now binge-watching a series on Netflix. And so on.

The people who write about these things (which is to say journalists and academics) go on a lot about extinction-level events and the collapse of the industry. This one paragraph from a Reuters Institute article at the start of 2024 sums it up:

Every year seems to be the worst year for journalism lately and 2023 was no exception. Layoffs reached a new record, artificial intelligence may have begun to displace journalists, and the war in Gaza claimed the lives of a record number of reporters. All this was compounded by long hours, chronic underpayment and a declining number of journalism jobs.

Take it from me that things are the same, or worse, as we enter the last stretch of 2025.

But also: I’m not one of those journalists who thinks that my craft is automatically important to people outside its slightly tatty walls. I do know that most people are not thinking about this as they go about their day, and that they don’t particularly want to hear media practitioners whining about their lot in life.

But there are some reasons that it’s important to understand what we may be losing, and to understand how the practice of journalism might be of benefit to all of us. Those reasons have everything to do with the rise of generative AI, and with a fundamental human trait: trust

What does it mean to trust something?

I’ve been thinking about all this a lot recently. I read a lot about generative AI and the amazing things it can do – but also the way it can create things that seem real, but just aren’t. 

Which is where trust comes in. I did the quickest of research into the concept of trust and found some things that are obvious once they are stated but invisible until they are stated. Essentially, this is what trust is, according to Psychology Today:

Trust – or the belief that someone or something can be relied on to do what they say they will – is a key element of social relationships and a foundation for cooperation. It is critical for romantic relationships, friendships, interactions between strangers, and social groups on a large scale, and a lack of trust in such scenarios can come with serious consequences.

A 2017 editorial in Frontiers in Psychology takes that further: “The majority of scientists agree that trust is a necessary ingredient for almost all functioning human interactions, from love and friendship to economic prosperity and the emergence of large-scale organizations.”

So – as I said, obvious but invisible: trust is Very Important.

Trust and journalism

It used to be that trust in news organisations and their journalists was possible, simply because of local context. You could check what your local news outlet said against your surroundings, your own knowledge of your neighbourhood and city, your own attendance at the same meeting that was reported on in your publication of choice.

Those days are long gone. Social media and the global nature of the internet have swept all that away. But, in the world world of the web, it is still possible to cross-check sources against other sources, to fact-check against authoritative websites.

Trust and Gen AI

Enter our new world, where an engaging chatbot can tell you all sorts of things, very persuasively, and where famous people can appear to say or do things they did not say or do (Deepfake videos are getting shockingly good | TechCrunch). 

The tried-and-tested checking what you see against sources is still the way to go, but the persuasive nature of Gen AI means that our ability to tell fake from real is no longer in play.

We are all going to have to be journalists now, I’m afraid

If you are worried (as you should be) about how you can now make sense of, and what to trust, in the virtual world, may I suggest that you follow the example of people who are still doing this for a living, in very trying times.

Yep, you need to start to think like a journalist. Instead of assuming that what you are seeing is true, adopt the opposite default position – and then take the time to do the verifying process only if the information is important to you.

I call it “the narrowing of the eyes” and have been writing about it for years.

Journalists use a particular mindset that then turns into the processes and systems that news organisations use to filter and check information and sources in their work. You might not have those systems and processes, but you can adopt the mindset:

Don’t trust anything: A core aspect of a journalist’s identity is an inbuilt bullshit detector. These are people who refuse to take anything at face value. Make that your mantra – no matter what is said, activate an inner voice that says: Really?

Abandon your own biases: Even if this is an issue that you feel passionate about, and even if you truly want to believe what you are being told, see rule one: don’t trust anything.

Be a detective: If you need to rely on what your are seeing, then start digging. Where did the information come from? Can it be cross-checked against other sources? Is there another side to the story?

Learn some tricks: Look for these signs of reliability in a source – are there places where you can report a mistake? Are there “About Us” and “Contact Us” sections, a physical address and privacy policies or terms of use?

Does this sound like a lot of work? It does, and it is. But the alternative is to drown in a sea of bullshit.

Be careful of your heart, though

The “narrowing of the eyes” can be psychologically alienating. I’ve written about this before, but it bears repeating:

a journalist is apart from the bounds of normal human intercourse, is always an outsider. That’s why their social circles usually consist of other journalists (though sometimes a cop or a lawyer might feature)… They are distrustful so that other people don’t have to be. They carry the job of finding out the things that most people don’t really want to know. And they are always the messenger.

My advice would be to aim for a clear understanding of what’s important: virtual life is the area for scepticism, real life not so much. You probably can’t trust that picture of a politician doing something they shouldn’t or wouldn’t normally. But you live a real life in the real world: put your trust where it belongs, in real people.

Main picture: Journalists cover the electoral process in Mogadishu, Somalia on December 4, 2016. UN Photo/Ilyas Ahmed (Licence: Public domain)

Other things I have written

What journalists do (part one): the narrowing of the eyes – What is that journalists do, anyway? It’s less about the tools of the trade and more about a certain cast of mind.

What journalists do (part two): the checking of the facts – In a sea of confusing information, journalism is one way of sifting truth from nonsense. How do journalists do that?

Step-by-step: How to tell if a news article is reliable – The Internet is big… so big. How is anyone supposed to tell whether a news website is to be trusted or not? Some quick tips to test for legitimacy…

What you need to know about AI hallucinations (hint: they aren’t hallucinations) – When AI makes mistakes, it’s called hallucinating. There’s a better, if ruder, word for it. That means this post contains what the dictionary calls vulgar slang. You have been warned.

How can I help you make order from chaos? 

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