14/09/2025

ON SUNDAY September 14, 2025 VI theSunday Special

Truth has become negotiable. People don’t just question the facts – they question the motives behind them.”

An age of abundance F RU WKH ¿UVW WLPH LQ KLVWRU\ ZH DUH GURZQ ing not in scarcity but in surplus. News doesn’t arrive once a day in neat packages; it pours from every screen, every hour. Smartphones buzz with alerts, TikTok clips double as news briefs and podcasts dissect events while you drive. But abun dance comes at a price: Trust. S XUYH\V IURP *DOOXS DQG WKH 5HXWHUV ,QVWLWXWH LQGLFDWH WKDW FRQ¿GHQFH LQ PHGLD LV DW KLVWRULF ORZV with barely a third of the audience believ ing what they read or watch. Malaysia is no exception. Political bias, ownership LQÀXHQFH DQG WKH ULVH RI ³FXW DQG SDVWH´ reporting have left readers sceptical. 0DQ\ QRZ UHWUHDW LQWR :KDWV$SS JURXSV or Facebook feeds curated by opaque algorithms – personalised, yes, but nar rowing, turning the public square into private echo chambers. This isn’t just a global problem. Lo FDOO\ PDQ\ 0DOD\VLDQV DGPLW WKH\ ¿UVW hear breaking news through forwarded :KDWV$SS PHVVDJHV ORQJ EHIRUH WKH\ see it in a trusted outlet. But once a story has travelled through dozens of hands, separating fact from spin becomes tricky. “Truth has become negotiable,” one jour QDOLVW WROG PH GXULQJ D UHFHQW ¿HOG VXUYH\ “People don’t just question the facts. They question the motives behind the facts.” The danger is not only disbelief but GLVHQJDJHPHQW 5HXWHUV¶ 'LJLWDO News Report notes a steady rise in “news avoidance” – people turning away because they feel overwhelmed, negative or simply tired. Too much information, it turns out, leaves many choosing ignorance. $, QRZ ZULWHV ¿QDQFLDO XSGDWHV VSRUWV reports and even weather bulletins. For publishers squeezed by shrinking budgets, WKDW Ḣ FLHQF\ LV VHGXFWLYH $ PDFKLQH FDQ crunch numbers and spit out a coherent 500-word story in seconds.

I T used to be simple. Reporters hunted down leads, editors argued over angles and headlines and readers trusted that the morning paper or evening bulletin told them what mattered. Today, that certainty has vanished. The newsroom is no longer a bustling office of the past, filled with clattering keyboards, but a shifting digital landscape where algorithms decide what stories VXUIDFH DQG DUWL¿FLDO LQWHOOLJHQFH $, FDQ churn out an article before a human has ¿QLVKHG WKHLU ¿UVW FXS RI FR̆ HH The Fourth Industrial Revolution – often abbreviated to “Industry 4.0” – has transformed media into something faster, smarter and, at times, more complex. The question now is whether journalism can keep its moral compass when machines are steering the wheel.

Drowning in updates, today’s audiences consume more news than ever, yet trust remains at historic lows.

Can truth survive in a world that rewards speed, clicks and noise? BY DR SRITHARAN VELLASAMY News at the speed of doubt

Invisible editors … algorithms now decide what stories surface, shaping what millions see (and don’t see).