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On April 23, 2019, The Central House of Journalists hosted a round table on “How to preserve the authenticity of the media in new technological conditions?”. The event was held by Russian International Affairs Council in cooperation with the Russian Union of Journalists and “International Affairs” journal.

A new technological revolution that is unfolding before our eyes is rapidly changing the world around us. And media play an equally important role. Digitalization greatly facilitates and accelerates the acquisition of information, but it also sets fundamentally new requirements for both producers and consumers of media content.

On April 23, 2019, The Central House of Journalists hosted a round table on “How to preserve the authenticity of the media in new technological conditions?”. The event was held by Russian International Affairs Council in cooperation with the Russian Union of Journalists and “International Affairs” journal.

A new technological revolution that is unfolding before our eyes is rapidly changing the world around us. And media play an equally important role. Digitalization greatly facilitates and accelerates the acquisition of information, but it also sets fundamentally new requirements for both producers and consumers of media content.

Modern news media often do not have the opportunity to conduct a thorough fact check of the information received. As a result, fake news is born, which often becomes a tool for manipulating public consciousness. The use of machine learning allows to produce such content in truly industrial quantities and constantly improve the quality. At the same time, fakes have ceased to be only a textual phenomenon, modern technologies make creating audio and video materials with imitation of voice and mimics of speakers (deep fakes) possible.

How does technology change the media? Is it possible to maintain authenticity without sacrificing the speed of information dissemination? How to counter fake news and, in particular, deep fakes?

These issues were discussed by the participants of the round table:

  • Armen Oganesyan, Editor-in-Chief of "International Affairs" journal, RIAC Member

  • Ivan Timofeev, RIAC Director of Programs

  • Olga Alekseeva, Editor-in-Chief of Gazeta.ru online newspaper, RIAC Member

  • Anna Belkina, RT Deputy Editor-in-Chief

  • Vyacheslav Umanovsky, Director of The Central House of Journalists

  • Yury Cherny, Head, Centre for Informatics Problems, Institute of Scientific Information for Social Sciences, Russian Academy of Sciences; Assistant Professor, Institute of Journalism, Communications and Media Education, Moscow State Pedagogical University

  • Alexei Firsov, Head of the Platform Research Centre

Roman Serebryany, Secretary of the Russian Union of Journalists, moderated the discussion.

Not only information consumers, but also the journalists themselves live in the “golden age of disinformation,” Armen Oganesyan shared his opinion. Today verification of the facts is hampered by a huge number of sources. In addition, as the speaker cited A.Pushkin, “Ah, it is easy to deceive me!...I long to be deceived myself!.” However, it is in the interest of journalists, the state, and recipients of information, including business, to deal with fake news. A. Oganesyan cited the VTsIOM (All-Russian Centre for the Study of Public Opinion) data, according to which only 17% of the Russian population completely trust the media.

According to Anna Belkina, the concept of inaccurate information is interpreted in different ways in current realities. The definition of fake news as knowingly false information is no longer appropriate. US President Donald Trump and French leader Emmanuel Macron started to address the media reports that could have a negative impact on their political image as fakes. At the same time, in the global information space, publications can be called disinformation, when they express a point of view that is undesirable to some political circles. Some countries have already established fake news centers such as “EU versus Disinformation”. However, RT Deputy Editor-in-Chief believes that these structures are sometimes biased in their assessments. The state also took up the fight against fakes, but some of the adopted laws, for example, in France, are contradictory.

Ivan Timofeev shared his point of view that science does not insure against fakes, as well as the level of education of the consumer of information. In support of the thesis, the speaker made reference to an experiment by an American psychologist D. Rosenhan, when the "pseudo-patients" convinced psychiatrists that they heard the "voices" and were sent for treatment. Timofeev also raised the issue of confidence in the media in the sanctions policy. On the one hand, the United States Department of the Treasury may consider publications by The New York Times and The Washington Post to be a significant reason for imposing sanctions. On the other hand, the new version of DETER Bill, providing for the introduction of sanctions for interfering with elections, states that activities of foreign media are not considered interference, given that they do not conceal their ownership structure. Timofeev also underscored the influence of the narrative used in the publication.

Olga Alekseeva noted that in the conditions of instant dissemination of information, journalists have no time to verify the facts. Today's small talks are conducted in social networks. According to Alekseeva, fake information is interesting to society and there is a demand for it. The speaker gave examples of media specializing in posting fake news as part of the infotainment strategy.

Vyacheslav Umanovsky, Director of The Central House of Journalists, continued the discussion on the narrative raised by Timofeev, the definitions used (for example, different sources can write “terrorists” and “rebels” in relation to the same people), and manipulating facts. Despite the verification, a journalist can include only the facts that confirm his/her original thesis in the article, while he/she can ignore or hide other facts.

Yury Cherny suggested a new perspective on the problem of misinformation. According to the speaker, fakes are not the anomalous, but the natural state of the digital environment. We can say that the fake is a technologically simulated reality, a special case of Jean Baudrillard’s simulacra. In particular, deep fakes are publications that imitate voice and facial expressions. Fakes have become an instrument that elites can use to achieve any goal. Cherny believes that fake news is not an unexpected challenge for the world. Back in 2016, social network expert Aviv Ovadya predicted the post-truth era. Now Ovadya announced the imminent onset of a total information apocalypse.

Alexei Firsov, supported Yury Cherny’s idea and expressed an opinion on the devaluation of the category of authenticity itself and of the profession of a journalist. In the modern world, people doubt whether the truth that cannot be verified, and the journalist reporting it, are needed at all. According to Firsov, the absence of authorities who know the true state of affairs, partly result in the emergence of fake news.

Summing up the discussion, moderator Roman Serebryany concluded that the profession of a journalist is equally important in the digital age as it used to be before. Despite the new technological conditions, the journalist should not neglect fact checking, the elementary and fundamental principle of work.

Other participants of the round table included: Daria Andreeva, Producer at RT; Elizaveta Antonova, International Affairs journal; Margarita Afanasyeva, Interfax news agency; Artur Gromov, TASS news agency, winner of a special prize from Expert magazine 2018; Kristiana Denisenko, Expert magazine, winner of the Competition for Journalists on International Affairs 2018; Pavel Koshkin, Fellow of The Institute of U.S. and Canadian Studies at Russian Academy of Sciences; Anna Lavrinenko, MGIMO student; Nikolai Markotkin, RIAC Media and Government Relations Manager; Alexander Rybin, "Fergana" news agency, winner of the Competition for Journalists on International Affairs 2017; and Artem Sokolov, Research Fellow at the Laboratory of International Trends Analysis, MGIMO MFA, winner of a special prize of International Affairs journal 2018.

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