WELCOME to the age of YouTube journalism, where news and entertainment have merged into a grotesque chimera of infotainment. Gone are the days when aspiring reporters needed burdensome things like degrees, experience, or heaven forbid, facts. Now, all you need is a catchy intro, a controversial topic, and the ability to speak with the urgency of someone reporting live from the apocalypse — even if you’re just discussing the weather.
It’s as if a magical realm has been discovered where credibility is optional, and views are the new currency. Who needs ethics when you can have ad revenue? This sensationalism has turned the news landscape into a carnival of hyperbole where nuance goes to die, and context and substance are sacrificed at the altar of clicks.
Let’s be clear, and let’s be fair — everyone has the right to make a living. If becoming a YouTube sensation is your path to putting food on the table, who are we to judge? Moreover, some credible journalists have successfully transitioned to YouTube, maintaining their professionalism while embracing the platform’s unique advantages. They use YouTube to offer in-depth analyses, behind-the-scenes insights, and extended interviews that traditional media often cannot accommodate, thereby elevating the quality of content available.
However, the digital opportunists who have joined the YouTube gold rush seem to have thrown the rulebook out of the window, treating their channels like digital ATMs.
For these YouTube mavericks, basic journalistic tenets like fact-checking, source verification, and objectivity have become optional extras in their quest for views, subscribers and viral fame. It’s as if they’ve embraced “fake it till you make it” as their personal creed, leaving the concept of journalistic responsibility in the dust.
Digital opportunists on YouTube have thrown the rulebook out of the window.
These self-proclaimed “truth-seekers” have mastered the art of crafting narratives so dramatic they make Woodward and Bernstein look like they were covering bake sales. But instead of painstakingly gathering facts, they prefer to whip up a story out of thin air, citing “sources” that are as real as unicorns. It’s a masterclass in creative writing disguised as investigative reporting, where the truth is just a starting point and embellishment is the main event.
They present their “findings” as earth-shattering scoops — all the while knowing that their biggest scoop might just be the one they’re shovelling. The result? A populace so desensitised to the truth that they no longer know who or what to believe, and reality is lost in the cacophony of manufactured narratives.
This new wave of info-tainers has also perfected the art of vague proclamations and cryptic declarations, turning their broadcasts into a kind of intellectual Rorschach test. They speak in circles, leaving just enough room for their prophecies to be interpreted in a multitude of ways, ensuring that no matter what happens, they can claim to have predicted it. It’s like throwing spaghetti at the wall and claiming you knew exactly which noodle would stick. Every viewer can walk away feeling like they’ve witnessed some grand revelation — even if the only thing they’ve actually experienced is a deep sense of confusion.
Political sycophancy, a time-honoured tradition in Pakistan, is now supercharged by the power of social media. The formula is simple: pick a political party or leader, preferably one with a fervent base, and proceed to shower them with praise so effusive it would make a Bollywood romance look understated.
These digital courtiers craft personas of unwavering loyalty, nodding along to every pronouncement of their chosen leader with the enthusiasm of a bobblehead in an earthquake. They validate, they flatter, they agree — until, miraculously, they find themselves in a position to influence the very figures they once fawned over. It’s an ascendancy, from sycophant to power player, all thanks to the magic of YouTube algorithms and the unquenchable thirst for flattery and ego-stroking content.
Amidst this comedic tableau of digital journalism gone wild, there’s a sobering reality we can’t ignore. The internet, for all its flaws, has democratised information dissemination in unprecedented ways. It has torn down the walls that once confined the spread of news to a select few gatekeepers. Now, with just a few taps on a screen, a message can race across the globe, igniting passions and shaping opinions in real-time.
But this amplification of reach also brings with it an amplification of obligation, and unprecedented opportunities demand a heightened sense of responsibility — a concept that seems lost on many intrepid YouTubers. Surely, there must be some standards, some ethical lines that shouldn’t be crossed. The challenge lies in striking a balance between leveraging YouTube’s potential for engaging content creation and upholding the fundamental principles that ensure public trust and informed discourse.
As we navigate this new landscape of information and misinformation, entertainment and news, we must ask ourselves: what is the cost of this unchecked proliferation of ‘DIY journalism’? Are we willing to sacrifice truth on the altar of entertainment? Can we find a balance between the democratisation of information and the maintenance of journalistic standards?
In Pakistan, as in much of the world, we stand at a crossroads. As consumers of new media, we bear a responsibility — to be discerning, to question, and to seek out multiple sources; be as sceptical as your grandma is about online banking and as suspicious as a detective who thinks everyone’s a suspect. We can choose to use the power of digital platforms to inform and enlighten ourselves or risk being misled and divided. The direction we take will either make us information-savvy or leave us scrolling aimlessly, wondering how we ended up on a conspiracy theory forum.
For now, the Wild Wild Web of YouTube journalism continues its frenetic dance of sensationalism, prophecy, and political pandering. It’s a show that would be purely entertaining if it weren’t so potentially dangerous. So, the next time you come across a YouTube video promising earth-shattering revelations or prophetic insights, remember: in this digital frontier, not all that glitters is gold — sometimes, it’s just really shiny clickbait.
The writer is an entrepreneur based in the US and UK.
Published in Dawn, September 5th, 2024
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