The Managing Director of PA Business Information Services, Alan Marshall, has stated that misinformation and fake content are a major challenge facing the media.
At the international conference “Freedom of Speech Borders”, in honor of the 25th anniversary of the establishment of the KosovaPress News Agency, Marshall said that they are trying to see who their audience is in order to verify the news.
“In the UK as in other countries, we are not immune to the challenges, the business models that emerge every day and we have seen many changes in our market, especially these different ones in relation to consolidation. There has been a limitation in relation to local level news, but we also have this part of the digital model that is not yet a stable base and we have seen this in recent years where we have the growth of online subscription models, the growth in the number of customer subscribers, but it is still not that part of confidence enough stability, then the artificial intelligence that changes every day, we have Facebook, Google and it is quite easy to have an impact on a model of such business. So, they are constant challenges, both for our customers and also for us. What we’re trying to do is think about who our audience is to verify the content of the news and how we can have a product that fits these newsrooms”, said Marshall.
Among other things, Marshall said that they are looking at the possibilities for people to bring accurate and reliable information to the audience, in this way to fight fake content.
“We currently also have clients that are non-media like news agencies (talking about AP), where misinformation is a big challenge, fake content as well, then it is a problem to verify the news for these non-media organizations, it can be the government, organizations, corporations, it can be different companies. This is very important for us as a target market in relation to the content, because otherwise we don’t have the opportunity to do the verification and to have the opportunity to raise the trust as well I think we are looking at these opportunities, we always have to look at it from the point of view of how much it can bring in front of artificial intelligence, where are these opportunities of financial benefits, and if we believe in the values of the content, we then, whatever else is happening in the digital world, people will still try to provide reliable, accurate, and unbiased information”, he said.
While he added that the recruitment of young journalists also remains a challenge.
“There has been a challenge in the public’s perception of the value of journalism, and this differs from country to country, but it is also related to the issue of credibility… Quotas have to recruit new journalists, because journalism is not seen as something which is of great social value, is something on the side, and this is a challenge,” said Marshall, among other things.
In the conference hosted by KosovaPress, members of the largest European network of news agencies EANA (www.newsalliance.org), as well as that of South-Eastern Europe ABNA SE (www.abnase.com), are participating, where KosovaPress is member in these networks.
This panel was moderated by Branka Gabriela Vojvodic from the Croatian News Agency HINA and consists of: Alan Marshall from the United Kingdom’s PA Media Group, Camille Bouissou from the French News Agency AFP, Natalia Kostina from the Ukrainian News Agency UKRINFORM, Aimilios Perdiakris from the Greek News Agency ANA-MPA.
In the second panel, the speakers will be the president of the Prishtina MALL Board, Fatmir Zymberi, the leader of the UBT College Edmond Hajrizi, university professor Besa Luzha, Kushtrim Krasniqi from the Kosovo Olympic Committee, and Tualant Hodaj from the Kosovo Football Federation, who will present views about the possibility of creating synergies to support innovative initiatives that advance social prosperity. /E. Krasniqi
