Jan Martínez Ahrens: “Our job is to make the truth viral” | fiftieth Anniversary | EUROtoday

“Our job is to make the truth go viral,” mentioned Jan Martínez Ahrens, director of EL PAÍS, this Sunday morning on the conventional Adolfo Mejía Theater in Cartagena de Indias. His response started a chat on the challenges of journalism, an occasion on the Hay Festival and throughout the framework of the celebration of the fiftieth anniversary of EL PAÍS, moderated by Diana Calderón, director of Hour 20 from Caracol Radio. “There are few media outlets that can afford to produce specific narratives for each network,” added Mexican Denise Maerker, presenter on N+, one other of the invited journalists. It is the problem created by fast technological advance, to which for the Milenio collaborator is added an more and more authoritarian coverage and the threats of organized crime.

The third participant has fueled the talk with the truth that impacts nations like his, Nicaragua. “In countries with centralized dictatorships, the only thing we can do is document, build information and build memory,” mentioned Carlos Fernando Chamorro, founder and director of Confidential, at the moment exiled in Costa Rica. Martínez Ahrens has complemented with a proof of the usage of hoaxes as a part of a technique that has helped the Spanish excessive proper, led by Vox, to generate “very powerful narratives.” “It is incredible how the young population of Spain in just 5 years has gone from being located in the center, and in certain circumstances to the left, to being on the right,” he mentioned, recalling that one thing comparable has occurred in different nations comparable to Germany, the United States or Argentina, and that the impact, in Spain, is to have moved the right-wing media more and more to the correct. “What we have to do is go back to the principles,” he mentioned, in reference to defending democracy as a system that encourages tolerance, dialogue with those that assume in a different way.

On that entrance, the director of EL PAÍS has proven self-criticism. “Traditional media have often been left behind and standing still only helps authoritarianism grow. We must do what we have always done, but we must also point the finger at those who lie and use hoaxes to monopolize power and, then, know how to use the instruments of technology to make the truth go viral. We are tired of lies going viral, our job is to make the facts go viral, the data that allows the reader to construct their own judgment.”

Along these strains, and in response to Calderón’s query in regards to the functioning and desires of present newsrooms, Maerker has identified the significance of balancing the should be on the agenda with verification of the origin of the data. “Sometimes it is revised a little, and something that all the media is reporting has a single source,” he recalled. “You have to go to the facts, you have to talk to people, even the ones you don’t like, and you have to tell what they say,” mentioned Martínez Ahrens, who additionally referred to as for us to consider what readers need and have to know, that’s, to have journalism that’s at all times attentive to present occasions: “After going to the facts, going to the different interpretations, not just focusing on the voices that are closest to us, but that means giving a voice to anyone.”

This perspective marks a distinction with a current technology of extremely partisan media that, for the director of essentially the most learn Spanish-language newspaper, has promoted rising authoritarianism. “Some have used the long crisis of the media to appropriate some that seem serious and are not, and others to create their own media. And they have achieved a very high narrative effectiveness, they have managed to nail their message and create a narrative that has managed to put itself above what the serious media do,” he mentioned, after which identified that the best problem on this fractal universe is to “distinguish the wheat from the chaff”, severe, high quality journalism, from that which isn’t. “We must use all avenues, social networks such as TikTok or Instagram. EL PAÍS has 37 million followers on all networks,” he recalled. “Some traditional media have a larger audience than ever in history, although we must understand that on the other side they also have growing audiences, in a specific audience and with their negative messages,” he concluded.

The social context of journalism

Calderón has additionally placed on the desk the political and social context wherein journalism is finished. “In Nicaragua, reporting journalism is prohibited. A colleague is in jail because in a program he broadcast some images of a procession of the Virgin, another for speaking on his radio program about the cost of living,” defined Chamorro, who recalled that his newsroom was raided twice by the regime. Precisely, for Martínez Ahrens, this actuality implies adapting the ideas of high quality journalism to every context. “Journalists have a point of view, we are very rarely neutral; we make decisions from the selection of the news. But we must refine the scale, define when we are more belligerent. For example, in Nicaragua we must do permanent neutrality journalism.” Maerker has defined how these contexts can create further burdens on the job. “Every time you go to a place, you have to do prior research, build alliances with credible local voices, because the official or activist that you thought was an authorized voice, could be an ally of a criminal organization. You must create a network of hidden collaborators so as not to put at risk the life of the reporter and the validity of what they are informing you. All of this is very difficult and that is why, in the journalistic process, before facing the problem of audience fragmentation, there is the challenge of getting the correct information in the land.”

Regarding the challenge of artificial intelligence, Martínez Ahrens has been open, but alert. “If it’s used, it have to be clear with the reader, warning them of how and why it was used. Although there are lots of unsure expectations, it may assist the work. But we should not be naive and consider that it’s the panacea, as a result of behind the algorithm there could also be keys that we don’t management and which will have a bias, as has already occurred with different applied sciences.”