There was a time when journalism stood as the last wall between power and the people. Facts were sacred, truth was slow but solid, and credibility was the journalist\u2019s only currency. But today, that wall is collapsing\u2014not because of censorship or corporate control alone, but because of the seductive lure of social media monetisation.<\/p>\n
Even seasoned journalists from respected media houses are now opening their own YouTube channels, TikTok accounts, Facebook pages, X (formerly Twitter) feeds, and Instagram reels to earn directly from clicks and views. Others write paid newsletters on Substack, record sponsored podcasts on Spotify, or stream \u201cnews commentary\u201d on Twitch and LinkedIn Live. The platforms may differ, but the logic is the same: attention equals income.<\/p>\n
And to earn attention, one must perform.<\/p>\n
In this economy of algorithms, the truth alone is not enough\u2014it must be dramatic. A headline must provoke, a thumbnail must shock, and a caption must trigger emotion. Journalism has turned into theatre, where facts compete with feelings for visibility.<\/p>\n
When every click means money, the line between journalism and entertainment evaporates. Subtlety dies. Complexity vanishes. Sensation rules. A small dispute becomes a \u201cnational scandal,\u201d a harmless rumour becomes \u201cbreaking news,\u201d and the private pain of individuals becomes public spectacle. The more outrage it provokes, the higher the revenue.<\/p>\n
Even responsible journalists\u2014those who once double-checked every fact\u2014are now caught in this trap. They post multiple short videos a day, often with half-verified claims, provocative thumbnails, and exaggerated titles. They pick up anything that \u201cperforms well\u201d\u2014from celebrity gossip to moral outrage\u2014because everything now has content value.<\/p>\n
This transformation is not only embarrassing for journalism; it is dangerous for democracy.<\/p>\n
Social media platforms like YouTube, TikTok, Facebook, Instagram, X, and Threads do not reward truth\u2014they reward engagement. The algorithms favour emotional content, not ethical content. Outrage spreads faster than reason. As a result, public discourse is shaped not by facts but by friction.<\/p>\n
What happens when the nation\u2019s journalists start competing with influencers for attention? When the same person who once reported corruption stories now makes reaction videos for income? The profession loses its dignity, and the audience loses its trust.<\/p>\n
It\u2019s not that journalists suddenly became unethical\u2014it\u2019s that the system has turned unethical. Platforms pay for popularity, not integrity. Those who play by the rules of truth struggle to survive; those who play by the rules of virality thrive.<\/p>\n
This is how the soul of journalism is being auctioned\u2014one click at a time.<\/p>\n
We must start asking hard questions:<\/strong><\/p>\n 1. Should truth depend on algorithms designed to exploit emotion and outrage?<\/p>\n 2. Should respected journalists turn into content creators just to pay their bills?<\/p>\n 3. And can democracy survive when facts are filtered through the logic of monetisation?<\/p>\n If journalism becomes just another hustle for followers and income, the cost will not be limited to credibility\u2014it will be the collapse of civic understanding itself.<\/p>\n The time has come for introspection. Media houses, journalists, and audiences alike must reclaim journalism from this marketplace of noise. Let news return to its true purpose: to inform, not to inflame. To reveal, not to perform.<\/p>\n Because once we trade truth for entertainment, we won\u2019t just lose journalism\u2014we\u2019ll lose our ability to tell the difference between reality and the show. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" There was a time when journalism stood as the last wall between power and the people. Facts were sacred, truth was slow but solid, and credibility was the journalist\u2019s only currency. But today, that wall is collapsing\u2014not because of censorship or corporate control alone, but because of the seductive lure of social media monetisation.
\nEven seasoned journalists from respected media houses are now opening their own YouTube channels, TikTok accounts, Facebook pages, X (formerly Twitter) feeds, and Instagram reels to earn directly from clicks and views. Others write paid newsletters on …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":49,"featured_media":14188,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[20,621,492,490,3,2065],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-14187","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-current-issue","category-news","category-opinion","category-slider","category-society","category-top-stories"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/pahichan.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14187","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/pahichan.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/pahichan.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pahichan.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/49"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pahichan.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=14187"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/pahichan.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14187\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":14189,"href":"https:\/\/pahichan.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14187\/revisions\/14189"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pahichan.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/14188"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/pahichan.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=14187"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pahichan.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=14187"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pahichan.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=14187"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}