A seminar analyzes the connection between declarative journalism and disinformation

The meeting brought together journalists from TVE, Público, Telemadrid and El Confidencial. They have analysed, together with URJC teachers and information verification professionals, the possible relationship between the abuse of statement journalism and its effects, amplified by social networks.

Raul Garcia Hemonnet

Can declarative journalism without context or analysis by reporters and powered by social networks contribute to disinformation? With the aim of answering this question, a new edition, the fourth, of the seminar 'Reputation of the Media' was held on Wednesday, November 10, at the Fuenlabrada campus.

Professionals such as Manuel Aguilar, creator of the TVE Verification Unit, Yolanda Sobero, president of the News Council of Public Television, Jon Ariztimuño, former director of News of Telemadrid, Virginia P. Alonso, director of the newspaper Público have participated in it. and María Zuil, a reporter at El Confidencial and a graduate of the URJC, as well as representatives of news verification platforms.

The session served to make a defense of contextualization journalism. Journalists contributed, mainly from the television media, but also from the digital press.

Among the main ideas that were discussed was the difficulty of contextualizing statements when the words of all the political forces of the parliamentary arc must be included and the air time is limited, as Jon Aritztimuño commented.

Likewise, the ability of journalists to verify information and the need for training in this regard in the newsrooms was addressed. Manuel Aguilar defended the idea of creating a small group in the newsroom to be in charge of verifying and training the rest of the team.

As explained by Yolanda Ortiz de Guinea, professor in the area of journalism and coordinator of the symposium together with María Eugenia Lozano, also a teacher, "the speakers complemented each other very well, having professionals with extensive experience, with a more street-oriented vision of a young reporter," expressed by Maria Zuil.

In general, the speakers pointed out that the essence of journalism remains the same as always: contrast and seek truthfulness.

Despite the complicated moment that the profession is experiencing, Virgina P. Alonso pointed out that we are at a time when there are many possibilities to do good journalism and highlighted one used by her newspaper in which they point out the sources consulted and explain the contrasted data. In this same sense, other opinions from the table pointed out that we are in a digital world and journalists must be using verification tools and combine these techniques with the usual journalism "of picking up the phone and asking questions," explains Ortiz De Guinea.

There was also space to analyze the precariousness in the sector and the need to put an end to it in order to have good journalism "essential for society to trust the media, for that, they must contextualize and verify the information", indicates the teacher of the URJC.