Journalism is dead – funeral arrangements will be announced later – Op ed

Abdulai Mansaray: Sierra Leone Telegraph: 12 May 2026:

In May 1789, Louis XVI summoned to Versailles a full meeting of the “Estates General” attended by the First Estate – consisted of three hundred Nobles, the Second Estate – three hundred Clergy, and the Third Estate – six hundred Commoners.

Some years later, after the French Revolution, Edmund Burke, looking up at the press gallery of the House of Commons, said, “Yonder sits the Fourth Estate, and they are more important than them all.

There could never have been a better description of the importance of journalism, the media and the press in society, than this quote from Edmund Burke. Over the years and through generations and epoch-defining sands of time, journalism has been subjected to so much transformation that the above quotation could plausibly pass for an epitaph, rather than a eulogy of this great art.

If today’s standard and mode of journalism is anything to go by, it is high time post mortems and autopsies were conducted to ensure a dignified funeral service for the Fourth Estate.

It is regrettably sad to see that what used to be sacrosanct, gospel truth, and daily sermons for mankind is slowly being put on the slow burner for cremation. The press, and especially the free press should not be seen as a privilege, but an organic necessity in any great society.

Journalism was, has been and should be the barometer of society and thermometer of public opinion. Even when the fingerprints of vested interests were visible behind every piece, every article, every slant and angle of stories, news and features, the taste of truth always lingered on the taste buds of the literary integrity of journalism.

Despite its inherent shortcomings, the advent of the internet has not only increased access to the media but also the speed of dissemination along the information highway.

Before the advent of the information highway, the narrative in the media, the press and journalism in general was monopolised by a few conglomerates. This group, as if a God-given right, had the audacity to calibrate the pressure of societal norms and temperature of public opinion. With insidious subtlety, they forced societies to interpret the world in their own image.

For example, they made us believe that Communism, as opposed to capitalism was a life –denying concept. China was seen as the existential enemy to modern society.  You would be hard pressed to count how many wars Communist China has engaged in, in modern times.

While China has become the world’s warehouse and biggest Shylock of the modern era, its capitalist American counterpart has been wallowing in trillions of debt and dilapidating infrastructure.

The media had long been castigated with “don’t believe everything you read”. This warning had never been so aptly effective until now. Donald J. Trump’s first term in office was largely characterised by his battle with the media. Her coined and propagated the “Fake News” retort each time he received unfavourable coverage of his stewardship as President of the United States (POTUS).

It is ironical that his creation has come back to haunt him. There have been three official assassination attempts on Trump’s life. From the Butler shooting in 2024 to the most recent during the White House Correspondents’ Dinner.

Such undesirable occurrences should generate condemnation, sympathy and empathy for the President. Unfortunately, a noticeable percentage of society have unleased so much unprecedented and relentless scrutiny, scepticism and associated conspiracy theories about these occurrences. WHY?

Why do people don’t trust mainstream media?

It is unquestionable that mainstream media has fundamentally divided its followers into two main domains. The media landscape of the past was characterised by readers and listeners. Today, such a traditional classification has morphed into “followers”. Interestingly, the classification as “followers” comes with hazard warnings whereby such followings are exercised with emotional fervour and dedication.

Where tribal, religious, political, class and racial differences played significant roles in determining the leanings of audiences and readership in the past, today’s dichotomy is largely fuelled by unprecedented lack of emotional intelligence and brazen propensity to lie unapologetically. False narratives are no longer gentle and subtle. They are brazenly in your face.

Unlike mainstream media, social media does not require any formal qualification to garner a large following. The more controversial and falsehood, the larger the following, thanks to the followers’ unconscious and confirmation biases.

The monetization of social media has made TRUTH, the single most casualty of the information highway.   On the one hand, mainstream media has been forced to catch up with social media and the race between them is too obvious to ignore. While social media comes across as everyone’s media, mainstream media has now been gormandised by a select few.

Prominent traditional media houses like CNN, SKY News, CBS, etc have unashamedly traded their integrity for follower ratings, to compete with social media. The many once time -honoured and trusted media giants are now mere echo chambers for their owners; proof that ownership by one person is unquestionably a sure recipe for the death of media integrity.

Interestingly, while social media competes and wins the race for “breaking news”, it cannot escape the clutches and reach of censorship, when the very social media outlets are now being gobbled up by the same one-man ownership syndrome.

The one-man ownership of media entities has marked the death throes of journalism. Trust in the media and journalism is dying a slow and excruciatingly painful death.

What has become of journalism today?

There is an obvious paradox that comes with the advancement of technology. Our world is flooded with an abundance of so much data that is leading to the human poverty of focused thinking and attention deficit.

Our ability and capacity for wisdom, judgement, rationalising, lateral and original thinking have all but diminished. What we have now are limited attention spans that are replaced by ready-made decision-making apps and programmes.

We now depend on subletting our human intellect to AI programmes like Chatgpt, google, Co-pilot, etc. The situation is so bad that machines sometimes ask us humans to prove that we are not machines (robots)

The media landscape has on one hand, the devout follower who believes unquestionably everything they read, see and hear from their “trusted source”. The motivation for such trust could be political, racial, religious, class etc.

On the other hand, it has led to a new brigade that treats every mainstream media with microscopic criticism. The “don’t believe everything you read” has now been taken to another level. This brigade of followers now seek to discredit, scrutinise and distil every news item that appears contrary to their confirmation bias. Consequently, the realm of conspiracy theories becomes the new norm.

With the use of the same technological advancement, these conspiracy theories are not only becoming so difficult to dispute, but they are also increasingly becoming plausibly believable.

Interestingly, the cognitive dissonance is one the paradoxical outcomes that is forcing humans to think more analytically, as we battle against the demons of the disinformation highway.  The unintended outcome has led the brigade’s followers to subconsciously engage in second hand critical thinking.

What does this mean for journalism?

The basic tenets of journalism is to inform, educate and entertain. Or so, we were told. With the wealth of information, the urgent need to allocate our attention efficiently among the overabundance of information sources that might paradoxically consume it cannot be overemphasised.

Journalism used to be the trusted source of information. Sadly, when the press and media openly connived to distil the truth to fit specific narratives, trust died a violent death. While the wealth of information has led to the poverty and scarcity of human wisdom, human thought and judgement, it is the incarceration of the truth that has given rise to a new brigade of “truth seekers”.

The British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC), a publicly subsidised corporation was regarded as the world’s epitome of media truth. Sadly, the BBC has not escaped the temptation asphyxiate the truth these days. Many believe that its integrity has been compromised by the narrative of protected species.

Where next with Mainstream media?

The desire and desperation to force feed the public with certain narratives are so severe that some media outlets have lost the ability to be subtle. The vacuum of trust between the public and mainstream media has unintentionally created the space for commentators, bloggers, podcasters, etc to distil their two pence thoughts to their ever-growing followers, while mainstream media continues its path to self-immolation.

What will happen to journalism if a whole generation is breast fed on the notion that mainstream media is fake news? What will happen to mainstream media when the young generation prefers the podcast as its main source for news? How long will the piper continue to play the tune of the payer, when the listener stops listening and dancing to his tune?

When will mainstream media realise that the most valuable commodity and asset is TRUST and that truth is the palm oil with which such trust is eaten? When will mainstream media recognise that TRUTH is not a perishable commodity?

When will it accept that it has the lost the keys to the content kingdom it ruled over with unfettered power, over what content gets written, produced, distributed and consumed? You know that Journalism is dead and the funeral arrangements will be announced later, when every piece triggers doubts and double takes.

Don’t forget to turn the lights off when you leave the room.