Analysis by Steve Ahern: Social media, journalism, extremist candidates, election blackouts and media.

In November last year Ireland held national elections. The result returned established political parties to power in a new coalition and, in contrast with elections in other parts of the EU, it did not bring any extremist parties to power. But it was not for lack of trying on the part of the extremist candidates.

During the election campaign, far right parties were using mis- and dis-information tactics to intimidate other candidates, push an anti-immigration agenda and question the legitimacy of the election process. It didn’t work, but during the election campaign responsible media were one of the targets of intimidation.

With that background, protecting the staff of responsible media publishers was on the agenda in several RadioDays Ireland sessions. The Communications Minister referred to it in his opening speech, saying “media is important to our democracy… we take democratic principles seriously,” and during a panel on protecting journalists, the national police force, known as the Garda (An Garda Siochána), explained their principles when it comes to protecting media workers.

Andrew McLindon, Director of Communications at the Garda and head of a media engagement group, explicitly linked a strong local media sector with the strength of democracy and explained how important it is to protect that pillar of society.

McLindon pointed out that it is not just about journalists, protection may be needed for all types of media workers, journalists of course, but also anyone carrying a camera or microphone, and anyone wearing branded clothing or using a station branded car. Physical threats, as well as virtual threats, particularly via social media, were identified as equally problematic.

McLindon said: “Anyone who works in media has a public profile. There is abuse of camera people or people holding a microphone. We are supporting all members of the media, abuse does not have to be part of your job.

 “You are part of protecting democracy and our job is to look after you. You have a direct line to someone 24/7 in the media engagement group, we have oversight of the complaint investigations and keep track of them.”

He urged media workers to report harassment because it helps the police identify and build up a profile of people who threaten media. “Individuals who have harassed you may have harassed others too.” Half the reports received from media during the last Irish election were for online abuse, the rest were for physical incidents. When media workers report harassment the Garda also offers them one to one personal safety advice.

“It’s very important from the democratic point of view that you in the media are able to do your job. We are serious about supporting you and so is the judiciary,” said McLindon.

Where there is a strong, well staffed local media sector, that is connected to the community and trusted, it is also a powerful force for democratic stability.

Radio in Ireland is a combination of local independent commercial stations in most counties, larger commercial networks and the national broadcaster RTE. Community radio is also part of the Irish landscape, but it is much smaller than in Australia (20 fully licenced stations) because the smaller local commercial stations are so well connected to their local communities.

An educated informed population, aware of media literacy, is another factor. Ireland has recognised that media literacy is an important element in understanding the business models of social media and search companies and is committed to building an awareness in people about checking and verifying information from unmoderated platforms.

Also important in the mix is a stable society, a good economy and a good employment level. If the population feels disenfranchised and neglected by its government then that is also a factor in democratic destabilisation. In Ireland there is still a section of society that does feel unsupported by its government, and they still desereve to have their voice heard, but the extreme candidates who tried to mobilise that segment of Irish socitey in the last election were not successful in leveraging enought support to be elected. In Ireland, where ‘The Troubles’ are sill within living momory, people also remember where extremism and uncivil social discourse can lead.

Bernadette Prendergast, the Head of News at Galway Bay FM, said: “ The core characteristic needed for a journalist is curiosity. That hasn’t changed. What has changed is the technology. There is now a need for new skills and new responsibilities for editors.”

Traditional verification is still needed. “If you get it wrong there is a race to the bottom and an immediate lack of trust from the audience.” But it is not all negative, the tools of production have made reporting work quicker and more effective, but those same tools have also made it easier to create misinformation. “On the fast scrolling platforms of social media everything can seem authentic if you only look at it for a few seconds. It’s not! We need to be constantly on our guard so we don’t get caught,” she said.

There is a blurring of lines between news creators and news consumers. People have a right to express their own opinions, but social media and the pandemic “propagated misinformation to an unprecedented level,” according to Prendergast. She observed that by the time the Irish election came around, people had determined which media outlets they could trust and they had also build a healthy scepticism about some things they were seeing on social media. “Traditional media worked so hard to put out proper information and people did start to realise that traditional media can be trusted,” said Prendergast, who suggested “a massive PR offensive” to counter the attacks on journalism and responsible media.

“Journalism is a pillar of democracy, we have a role to play in holding people to account and asking questions that the public wants to know,” said Prendergast

Other speakers in the RadioDays Ireland session also widened the analysis of how media supports democracy and stable elections.

Dawn Wheatley, a journalism professor at Dublin City University quoted her research study on female journalists where she found that there were many challenges for women in journalism. The research was conducted during a time of heightened negative sentiment against journalists.

“People feel emboldened to come up and shout at you if they see your mic branding. Online aggression has come off the computer keyboard into real life and they are emboldened by some of the things that high profile people are saying against the media.”

In Ireland the extremist parties tried to mobilise negative sentiment against media to foment distrust and undermine real reporting that could expose untruths and false campaign tactics.

With a large segment of the population, mostly younger demographics, getting their news from social media, it is important for responsible news organisations to be on social media to provide a balance for the unregulated mis-information that is seen on those platforms.

Ciara Riordan, is a Social News Editor for the BBC who helps manage a team of 33 people who run BBC News’ social accounts says they take their task seriously. Those accounts have over 230 million followers. BBC News works with the BBC Verify team to put out the most accurate information possible.

“We have various teams who have been working on these things for many years. We have a lot of expertise and careful checking steps. It takes time for the many signoffs we require to verify that something is real, so if you see something from BBC Verify you know it has not been rushed to publication,” said Riordan.

The target audience for BBC News social platforms are the under 25 digital natives who are diverse and socially conscious. “They spend most of their time messaging, gaming and on social media so that is where we reach them. They come across news passively while doing other things so we want to make sure our information is in that feed.”

Interestingly, Riordan shared consumption habits that indicated US politics is of more interest to that target audience than UK politics, indicating that political issues raised in the States could become hot topics in other countries due simply to the amount of stories that are pushed to them as a result of scrolling to American political posts.

During last year’s Irish election campaign, evidence emerged of violations of TikTok’s policies regarding political advertising.

In the time between elections, and particularly since the pandemic, “an emboldened far right movement has emerged in Ireland,” according to an Institute for Strategic Dialogue report quoted in the session. “Key figures in this movement” appear to be highly influenced by the issues and tactics of similar movements internationally that are aimed at destabilising society and government.

The report identified some of the tactics used in these campaigns:

• candidates’ use of crowdfunding platforms and the lack of regulatory accountability for these fundraising streams
• a regulatory environment that was either ineffective or missing
• a social media landscape fertile for rumours, abuse and disinformation

Another area of concern was the broadcast moratorium, a legally mandated period prohibiting Irish radio and tv broadcast media outlets from reporting on election-related information from 2 pm the day before voting. As in Australia, the original aim of an ‘election blackout period’ was to give people time to think about the choices they would make when they went to the polling booth. Since the growth of social media manipulation, this regulation has been exploited by the publication of advertisements and commentary on socials that are not regulated and happen at the last minute where responsible media are unlikely to be able to counter them.

The Strategic Dialog repot gives the example of the Slovakian general election in September 2023, where an audio deepfake of a senior politician released during its broadcast moratorium “exposed how such media blackouts occur at a moment when democracies are uniquely vulnerable.” Ireland has now scrapped its electoral moratorium. The report also identified that the Irish regulator did not have the power or resources to enforce requirements for electoral integrity and false advertising at the time of the Irish election.

Download the full report here: Analysing-claims-of-electoral-interference-during-the-Irish-EU-elections

As our Australian elections loom, there are some lessons we can learn about how we check and report election news. It has been enlightening to explore the destabilisation tactics I’ve outlined above to unmask those who seek to undermine democratic elections. Two more reports are also listed below.

Destabilisation of society can happen through foreign interference or by home grown forces that use moments of vulnerability such as elections to carry out their aims. The example of Ireland shows that strong local media with responsible editorial processes, backed by other institutions of society such as police and judiciary are an important element in thwarting destabilisation activities.

Our work has begun for media to play its role in achieving a solid election result that reflects the genuine will of Australians, not the result of trickery and manipulation.

I look forward to my democracy sausage at my local polling booth on May 3, shortly after I return from my international assignments.

Steve Ahern

Resources:

TikTok fails to detect disinformation ahead of Irish general election

Factcheck: Irish candidates make election rigging claims after failed campaign

About the Author:

Steve Ahern is the founding editor of this publication.

He has worked in media for four decades and now delivers training and media business consultancy to broadcasters and media companies around the world.