The Damaged Reputation of the Media

On 16 June 2021, Facebook announced that it had removed a network of fake accounts in Ethiopia that had been targeting domestic users ahead of the country's general elections. Facebook linked the accounts to individuals associated with the country’s Information Network Security Agency. The accounts posted positive stories about embattled Prime Minister Abyi Ahmed and his Prosperity Party, while ragging on opposition groups and parties.  Meanwhile, in South Africa, a senior journalist at one of the country's mainstream newspapers published a story about a black woman in South Africa's most populous province, Gauteng, giving birth to 10 children and thus breaking a Guinness World Record. The story turned out to be fake and probably linked to factional fights in the ruling ANC, but many of the journalist's social media supporters dismissed his critics as racist (he is black). Media scholar Herman Wasserman points out that in an era where disinformation is rampant, where an overwhelmed public craves clear, authoritative information and where trust in the media is low, disinformation has devastating consequences for the already fragile reputation of news media and our ability to make sense of the world. Wasserman, a professor of media and film studies at the University of Cape Town, joins us to talk about the results of a study he carried out on misinformation on the continent. The situation is worse than you think. Also on the show is Grieve Chelwa, a contributing editor at AIAC, and Inaugural Postdoctoral Fellow at the Institute on Race and Political Economy at The New School, to remember the life and legacy of Zambia's first president Kenneth Kaunda (1924—2021).