“Big Brother is watching you”. This is certainly the most famous quote from George Orwell’s book ‘1984’. While we might not be sure who this Big Brother is, we all know that we are watched and traced through our electronic devices today.
Depending on the country we live in, we might feel more or less comfortable when we think of it. This comes down to trust.
Who and what is trustworthy today? The German word for ‘trust’ is ‘Vertrauen’ which is related to “trauen” which, among other meanings, can be translated as “to have courage”.
There is always a risk when you trust. Trust is a feeling and might be based on previous experiences.
In ‘1984’ George Orwell also describes how history is constantly re-written. I remember when I first read the book and was wondering how someone could re-write history as my sources then were volumes of printed books.
However, we have electronic books today, and they can be changed, updated or manipulated. Many people rely on the Internet when it comes to history – but what is true? There are so many different versions of the same stories that we can pick and choose which story we believe. We choose the source we trust.
In the past, we expected journalists and historians to fact-check information before publishing, but today, any news is supposed to come out immediately. There is no time for fact-checking, and if wrong conclusions have been drawn, rectifications might be done afterwards – but will likely disappear in the constant flood of information.
The trust or lack of trust in news is opening a chasm: many people are fed only by the news from their preferred and often one-sided channel. Without any attempt to look at other news, these people will live in their own reality. Once they are hooked to it, they wouldn’t trust any other sources and hence become immune to any fact-checks.
Where do we go from here?
How can new and independent media make themselves known and be trusted?
Some YouTube news reports try to capture their audience with words like “bombshell reporting” or claiming that a certain public figure is “destroyed”. Can we trust media that is so desperately seeking attention?
We might have to rely on recommendations from our friends, from people we trust – or the hard way: gather information from different channels and then make up our minds.
BM
