As RTÉ News launches a new strand of content designed to counter misinformation and disinformation, Managing Director of RTÉ News & Current Affairs, Deirdre McCarthy, explains why it is more important than ever to be able to trust the news you are consuming.
On his St Patrick's Day visit to Washington, Conor McGregor said that Dublin had gone from being one of the safest to one of the most dangerous cities in Europe over the last decade. It was one of several sweeping claims he made that day in support of his personal views on immigration.
We have since established the basis of Mr McGregor’s claim. It can be traced back to a guide published by an online gambling website ranking European cities based on the number of casinos, nightlife and the price of a pint.
This article illustrates how official data sources do not support the claim.
It is those additional facts and information that cast a very different light on Mr McGregor’s stated opinions.
It also shows why sourcing and verifying of stories, as well as providing context to public announcements and claims, is so important. It is essential to challenging the ongoing battle to separate fact from fiction and in highlighting false and misleading information.
Some 64% of Irish people told Coimisiún na Meán how they were concerned about being able to spot what is real or fake in 2023. That only intensified with a waves of AI development, deepfakes, and a slew of changes to how social media platforms present information, reaching 71% in 2024.
With so many information access points available nowadays, vast amounts of material can be overwhelming and make it challenging for audiences to make sense of it all.
But we want you to be confident in our newsgathering and our sourcing of stories - and to make sure you can see there is no agenda behind our storytelling.
Today RTÉ launches Clarity, a new strand of coverage, in which our journalism will counter the deliberate manipulation of facts and distorted video and digital content to challenge false and fake news.
It will help to equip you, the reader, the listener, the follower, the viewer, with accurate and impartial facts so you can judge for yourselves where the real story is.
RTÉ Clarity has a very clear mission statement:
'Clarity is RTÉ's focus on disinformation, discourse, and democracy.
In a changing world, people face a barrage of claims and counter-claims. On many issues, it is increasingly hard to tell whether something is fair opinion or a false 'fact'.
In the journalism published under the Clarity strand, RTÉ will demystify complicated issues, debunk deliberate attempts to distort reality, detail how online discourse impacts democracy, and explain exactly how RTÉ verifies its quality journalism. It will also ask the difficult questions, even when it is uncomfortable to do so.'
New research conducted for RTÉ in recent weeks (surveying approximately 1,000 people) shows that over 84% of respondents are worried about disinformation, and 90% are worried specifically about its impact on young people.
And one in four people under 30 believe that RTÉ, compared to other media outlets, bears the most responsibility in addressing that.
Clarity will primarily focus on our digital and social platforms. Articles within this online strand will check and explain information and video content and will aim to give audiences the tools to navigate this noisy space.
Disinformation and trust
The problem posed by disinformation and misinformation is increasingly challenging and becoming ever more serious. Its persistence continues to erode trust in the media and, even more worryingly, democracy itself.
These days only about 40% of people worldwide say they consistently trust 'most news most of the time’ - a sobering statistic that underscores the depth of the crisis.
The figure for Ireland generally is higher at 46%, and far higher for trust in RTÉ specifically, at 72%.
But there is no room for complacency, and we do not take the public's trust for granted. If we are to continue to maintain and grow trust levels, then we must also clearly demonstrate how we do what we do every day.
It's why we want the public to understand how we stand over our stories as well as hold ourselves and others to account, which in itself will bring important clarity for our audiences.
