Democracy couldn't be taken for granted in a world of artificial intelligence, social media and a fragmented media landscape, Constructive Institute CEO Ulrik Haagerup told the National Press Club on Wednesday.
Media organisations had turned to a model of trying to sensationalise news to drive traffic rather than write what was in the public interest, as the advertising revenue the industry traditionally relied upon dried up, the former news editor and investigative journalist contended.
"The panic in the news industry has led us to the same strategy for the last 15 years, to turn up the volume button to fight for the attention," he said.
"More breaking, more sharp headlines, shorter stories, more views and more space for the loud, the most extreme and the ones with the most likes."
That played into the hands of people like US President Donald Trump, who used outrage to score headlines and airtime, Mr Haagerup said, referencing the president's former advisor Steve Bannon who said the media strategy was to "flood the zone" with misinformation to change algorithms and influence what people saw.
Mr Trump highlighted the challenge of journalists not regurgitating comments from people in power without context or critical analysis, but also being careful not to veer into what can be perceived as advocacy against a policy or idea, he said.
"People need people journalists doing exactly that, especially in the time of Trump and AI," he said, pointing to the integrity of fact-checking.
"What is truth, what is false ... because it's so difficult and they need somebody to lean on and that's the job of journalism."
But the public was turning its back on traditional news providers, finding them depressing, overwhelming, biased and not relevant enough to spend their time or money on, Mr Haagerup said.
The radical change in information and communication technology has hit the news industry harder than any other, Mr Haagerup said.
"Hardly any other industry is finding its role challenged so fundamentally, its values and worth being eroded and its business model threatened to the point of extinction," he said.
"So to put it bluntly, Houston, we've got a problem. We now know that we can't take democracy for granted."
