Democracy Without Journalism? Confronting the Misinformation Society

Sonali Kolhatkar speaks with Victor Pickard, an Associate Professor at the Annenberg School for Communication at the University of Pennsylvania, and co-Director of Media, Inequality & Change Center.

He has written widely about media, the news, communication, and democracy.

His new book is Democracy Without Journalism? Confronting the Misinformation Society.

There was a time when American journalism was considered the envy of the world. With a constitutionally guaranteed “freedom of the press,” journalism flourished and by and large, journalists showed a healthy skepticism of power and elites showed the press a modicum of respect.

Today, as the term fake news is both a real phenomenon and a weapon in the service of propagandists, with a lot of misinformation going around, it is harder for the public to tell what is truth and what is not. Journalism is essential to a democracy – can there be democracy without journalism in misinformation society?

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Democracy Fake News Free Speech TV journalism Misinformation Misinformation Society Sonali Kolhatkar Victor Pickard