There are the wars … and then there are the information wars. The hacked accounts. The doctored photos. The deepfakes. The battles over casualty figures and targets. The surging conspiracies.
When people feel they can’t trust anything they read or view, authoritarians of all stripes rejoice. Why? Because without trusted information, they get to create their own facts, and use them to change reality.
Increasingly, these are the dynamics that shape our world, and they are exactly why I feel so passionately about the Guardian. In a time of raging information wars – waged by nation-states, political parties and attention-economy grifters – the Guardian doesn’t treat news and information as a weapon of war. Instead, it treats it as a right that all people deserve, regardless of whether or not they can afford to pay, one that transcends nationhood, partisanship and profit.
These principles are why I read the Guardian daily. They are why I write for it as a columnist (and have, on and off, for almost a quarter of a century). And these principles are also why I urge you to support the Guardian if you can. As climate breakdown intersects with surging authoritarianism and spiraling militarism, the need to protect and strengthen this unique international media organization feels more urgent than at any point in my lifetime. With US presidential elections less than a year off, and Trumpism (or worse) threatening a comeback, the Guardian will be a lifeline.
Since publishing my book Doppelganger, which delves deeply into conspiracy culture and misinformation chaos, many readers and interviewers have asked me what we can do to rehabilitate our poisoned information ecology. How do we rebuild trust in a time of acute partisan polarization? How do we find facts we can rely upon? How do we know the difference between investigative journalism and fantastical conspiracy claims?
I don’t have all the answers, but I do have one: invest in quality, accountable and independent journalism. Support media that is governed by legible standards and principles, not the twisted incentives of the attention economy. In short: support the Guardian.
I don’t agree with every article that the Guardian publishes, or every editorial stand it takes, but I’m not looking for perfect agreement. Like so many of you, I turn to the Guardian for first-hand reporting by professional journalists from around the world, vetted by editors who are honest about uncertainty and adapt to new information. We don’t need another echo chamber – we need spaces for respectful and rigorous debate.
So much of our media landscape is bisected by paywalls, and for understandable reasons: journalism is expensive, especially investigative reporting. But the Guardian has a different and, in my opinion, very special model. It isn’t owned by a corporation or by a billionaire, and it provides its journalism to anyone in the world who wants and needs it as a right.
There is only one reason the Guardian can do that: you – the solidarity and commitment of supporters who fund its journalism year after year.
You make it possible to meet information wars with information rights.
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