Opinion | Why we cannot let journalism die: the Ukraine war highlights the importance of traditional news in a world dominated by social media influencers

As more people look to social media as their primary source of information, events like the Ukraine war highlight the importance of traditional journalism

Good journalists speak truth to power when lives are crushed in times of war and other catastrophes – influencers just tell us what to listen to and buy

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Journalists at the scene of a crater caused by a Russian missile in Kramatorsk in the Donetsk region, 15 July 2022. The Ukraine war highlights the importance of journalism in a world dominated by social media influencers. Photo: EPA-EFE

Simon Parry

Published: 9:45am, 23 Jul 2022

Journalists get a bad press these days, and it often leads to cheap shots and vulgar insults. I’ve been called a sanctimonious windbag, a dirt-digging low life and a washed up, sad old hack – and that’s just by my wife and children.

I cannot argue with them. I’m a disreputable relic of a dishonourable profession spiralling towards its inevitable, ignominious death. No one reads newspapers any more and no one watches television news. People get their information and form their world views in different ways.

Influencers tell us what to wear, what to listen to and what to buy, and bloggers with deep-pocketed sponsors and warped world perspectives instruct us on the big issues of the day and what we should think about them.

At least that’s how it works most of the time. Then along comes a war, and journalism – or rather some elite stratum of it that has always been above my pay grade and competence – becomes suddenly and startlingly relevant.

Ukrainian service members fire a shell from an M777 Howitzer at a front line, as Russia’s attack on Ukraine continues. Photo: Reuters

There are no pouting social media starlets flying out to the Donbas to post swimwear selfies from the frontline (more’s the pity). And the keyboard warriors bashing out unhinged conspiracy theories are tucked away behind the bedroom curtains of their parents’ homes.