As Social Platforms Overtake News Sites, Media Organisations Can Lead With Credibility

By Vijian Paramasivam

PHNOM PENH, Nov 8 (Bernama) -- Experts are calling for credible mainstream media, smarter fact-checking tools, and the promotion of media literacy to counter the deluge of misinformation.

The way news is produced has changed, and so has how people consume it, with social media and video platforms now leading content distribution worldwide.

But the shift has also fuelled the spread of fake news and misinformation using artificial intelligence (AI), which is pressuring traditional news organisations.

Media experts say strengthening independent media and promoting media literacy – user’s ability to think critically about what they read, watch, and share – are key to curbing misinformation.

“The growing concerns about misinformation and AI-generated content present an opportunity for mainstream media to reaffirm their value as reliable sources of information,” School of Communication and Media Studies at Sunway University Associate Professor Dr Nuurrianti Jalli told Bernama.

“This does not mean mainstream media are automatically more trustworthy, but professional journalism has established verification practices and editorial standards that distinguish it from much of the content circulating online.”

Misinformation is testing journalism built on firm foundations such as accuracy, fairness, impartiality, fact-checking, and reliable sources.

However, social media has transformed the reporting landscape.

AI makes convincing fake content cheaper and easier to produce, enabling unverified claims to spread rapidly.  

The same technology used to verify information can also propagate the falsehood being investigated.

Malaysian National News Agency (Bernama) Digital Media/MyCheck Malaysia Editor, Sakina Mohamed, said the challenge now goes beyond correcting falsehoods to stopping misinformation from becoming an accepted narrative.

“AI can help us identify emerging claims, gather evidence, and accelerate verification. But it can also reproduce the very misinformation we are investigating, particularly when widely circulated claims are mistaken for credible evidence.

“Ultimately, newsrooms should not compete with misinformation on speed alone. We need to be quicker at identifying potential harm, more transparent about what we know and do not know, and smarter about getting verified information to the audiences who need it,” she said.

Bernama’s MyCheck Malaysia, along with the Malaysian Communications and Multimedia Commission’s (MCMC) Sebenarnya.my, are fact-checking platforms designed to counter misinformation.

The MCMC last week said it had removed over 56,000 pieces of fake online content between Jan 1, 2023 and Oct 15, 2026.

Another paradox facing modern media, said Nuurrianti, is that news organisations, under financial pressure to sustain good journalism, are placing more reporting behind paywalls, while unverified information can easily reach the masses.  

“Unverified information remains widely accessible through social media. Paywalls are understandable from a business perspective, but they also raise questions about who can afford access to credible information.

“We need to think seriously about how journalism can remain financially sustainable without making reliable information less accessible to the wider public,” she said.

The spread of misinformation and disinformation is raising serious concerns, as false narratives can negatively influence public behaviour.

While the public now has easy access to information online, their inability to distinguish fake news from verified sources can have dire consequences.

Educator and Media and Information Literacy for ASEAN Network researcher Wong Lai Cheng said without media literacy, people may struggle to differentiate between what is real and fake, credible and misleading.

“Individuals may be less equipped to make informed decisions, engage in meaningful public discourse and hold institutions accountable,” she told Bernama “particularly in an increasingly AI-mediated environment.”

The Malaysian experts spoke at the ASEAN Multi-Stakeholder Symposium on Mitigating Disinformation and Managing Synthetic Media in the Digital Era, held in Phnom Penh on Nov 4 and 5.

-- BERNAMA