A pub in England. Every afternoon there is a quiet atmosphere, some customers sitting at the tables, others at the bar, the waiter fills them as the pints of beer are vacated. He's a good guy, he can talk to him as much as he wants. It's got TV on, always the same private channel. Four series are released on the table one after the other. After them, the informative begins, in which the tabernacle systematically turns off television.

More and more people are going through the news. This is the conclusion of this year’s Digital News Report, which is based on over 93,000 interviews conducted in 46 countries. Thousands of people have responded that they consume news mainly on social media, that video format is the main claim and that many of them expressly avoid news. The reasons: that the media find them “boring” or that the information gives them “anxiety” and “helplessness”. Many people have also warned of the difficulties that the platforms have in knowing whether the information is true or false.

“It seems that reporting has become to show a story underway or, directly, to involve them in the event,” wrote Ignacio Ramonet, former director of Le Monde Diplomatique, along with Noam Chomsky... 1995. But it's not the same thing to see as understanding. Although we see the sun circling around us, it is the Earth that moves around us, as Galileo showed. Being informed is not so much seeing the last photo that has been broadcast in Whatsapp as listening to the rumor. Among all the illusions, the most dangerous is to think that there is a single reality. That's what the philosopher and psychologist Paul Watzlawick, who worked on the theory of human communication, deduced. The point is that, many times, the fears and perceptions obtained through these paths are gradually materializing, until they become reality and a tangible problem, as is recently seen in our neighborhoods with the extreme right and racism. At the same time, the consumption of 30-second videos filtered by opaque algorithms feeds the chimera of what may be informed effortlessly. That's a fallacy. Living informed always requires effort, but also a lot of reward: “Achieving the right to participate intelligently in democratic life,” says Ramonet.

“In the midst of the tumult that the mass media create and manage with their agenda… we have to give something different to those who want something different,” said our colleague Pello Zubiria in an interview a few months ago in ARGIA. In their words, citizens need journalists to know the alternatives that are underway in the world and to understand what is happening in our environment. To do this, we must give the following keys: Who has done what? How? Where? Why? In what context? What are the causes? What about the consequences? The journalist must answer these questions honestly. With respect for citizenship.

From the analysis of these questions, however, it is shown that the media is not a neutral organisation, of course. Everyone has their ideology and interests. And, above all, the propietarios.El Digital News Report itself has been produced by the Institute Reuters, with the support of many institutions such as Google – or the University of Navarra! –. But let's look at what Reuters is: the world's third largest news agency, with 2,500 journalists and 600 photojournalists, was bought in 2008 by one of the world's 25 richest people. So the question is: when they tell us that the media landscape they've helped create doesn't interest people, where do they want to go? What are you preparing to maintain your privileges? Do you try to legitimize yourself as a messenger of truth to fake news? The Reuters and the others, who have lied like the headquarters of Hamas under the largest hospital in Gaza, and all who have never apologized for murdering hundreds of people.

The scene of the server that turns off television from the beginning of the article was described in the comic book prologue V for Vendetta by screenwriter alan Moore in 1998. One day, however, he asked why he was taking away the news, and the tabernacle responded that he did not know it, that he did it without further ado. Finish your article with a silent shout: “This comic is for those who don’t turn off the news.”

Since then, 25 years have gone by nothing, and we are not going to say that we do not understand what may be saturated with information. Overinformation and misinformation go hand in hand. However, we dare to say, contrary to what the report says, that most people have not been tired of the news itself – it would be like saying that people have been tired of music – that they are able to distinguish the news and the garbage they bring to their lives. The credibility of media power over the last decade is nothing more than an indicator of the crisis. And having seen this, people's answers also make sense. How is people not going to happen or feel helpless if the Western media has sold the death of 270 Palestinians in Israel by releasing four hostages? How can they not generate anxiety when it is observed that nuclear war is breaking irresponsibly or that they want to cover the climate emergency with a layer of greenwashing? How can people not say that the media are boring, that raising the minimum wage is an unacceptable expense and that the money given to friends is always an investment? How will people not get angry with the media if the anniversaries of the Bangladesh Rana Square massacre always hide that the multinationals Inditex, El Corte Inglés, Mango, Alcampo, Primark, Wal-Mart, GAP or Benetton were responsible for the deaths of those 1,127 people?

No, it is not a lack of interest. What happens is that people don't like it being called dumb. And there, independent journalism has a good opportunity to show that it has something different to offer to citizens.

We have published this editorial to open the special journal of ARGIA 2024 108 pages. People will receive LIGHT on paper or in PDF, depending on their choice. If you haven’t taken the step yet, do ARGIA and we’ll send it to you with great pleasure! The rest you can buy at the Fair.