COVID-19 disinfodemic and journalism ethics in South Africa's mainstream news media ecosystem

Abstract

This chapter is a contribution to the ongoing debate on the newsification of the COVID-19 pandemic and ethical journalism practices in the mainstream news ecosystem. It takes a philosophical approach to journalism ethics. Our argument is that confronted by a digital media-driven disinfodemic, journalists in South Africa found established journalism ethics inadequate to navigate the COVID-19-induced ethical challenges. They had to think on their feet. For instance, the verification of the pandemic’s data, breaking news of casualties and the language to use when referring to victims, naming prominent victims affected by the virus, became central ethical challenges to mainstream journalists, in ways rarely experienced before. Furthermore, the speed and scale of the disinfodemic derailed any hope of strict adherence to ethics as journalists battled with a seemingly unconquerable scale of the disinfodemic. Finally, we concur with the view that traditional mainstream journalism training in media ethics is no longer sufficient to meet contemporary journalism ethics challenges, especially during crisis reporting moments where disinformation, misinformation and outright fake news are ubiquitous. Hence, journalism schools (J schools), need to constantly rethink how journalists can best be equipped to navigate the ethics minefield characteristic of crisis moments like pandemics, notable for their large quantities of unfiltered information, conspiracy theories and outright fake news.