Farhat Khedr
In a closed WhatsApp group, which includes Syrian journalists from various backgrounds, one member noticed that the older colleagues often shared inaccurate news. He confidently said: “Veteran journalists fall faster into the trap of disinformation.”
But just a few days later, he admitted: “The youth aren’t immune either. Modern technologies didn’t protect them as I had thought.”
A personal experience that reflects a bigger dilemma facing modern media: Who is more prone to error in the age of information flooding?
When this observation was presented to Dr. Zahera Harb, head of postgraduate journalism studies at City, University of London, her perspective was balanced.
Harb emphasizes that long experience provides journalists with better tools to distinguish between correct and misleading news.
She says: “The accumulation of experience and understanding of political and historical contexts helps veteran journalists exercise caution before publishing.”
However, she also notes that sophistication is not an unbreakable shield. Even senior journalists can fall victim to advanced disinformation techniques, especially those that manipulate real contexts to pass off convincing lies.
She believes that the impulsiveness of young journalists, combined with the speed of digital media, makes them more prone to haste, stressing that the solution is not about age, “but about strict adherence to professional standards, foremost of which is verifying information from multiple sources before publishing.”
When discussing the new media landscape, Dr. Zahir Omareen, professor of media and communication sciences at the University of London, offers a different evaluation.
Omareen believes that young people have recently gained specialised experience in dealing with media disinformation.
He says: “The intensive exposure to social media — and its practical monopoly on news transmission in conflict zones like Syria — has granted young journalists advanced verification skills that were unavailable just a few years ago.”
He adds that “daily interaction with digital platforms made the youth more adept at using verification tools, from reverse searches to image and video analysis.”
Nevertheless, Omareen warns about a common mistake among older journalists: overconfidence in traditional sources, assuming that known outlets are always accurate, despite the fact that disinformation can infiltrate even major international channels.
During the COVID-19 pandemic, this professional gap became glaringly obvious. Many journalists, both old and young, conveyed misleading information based on non-specialised medical statements or studies that had not been fully peer-reviewed.
Traditional verification standards failed against the overwhelming flood of scientific news, underscoring the importance of new verification tools and highlighting the dangers of rushing without returning to the original information source.
This issue was not limited to a health crisis; it also reappeared in armed conflicts, where professional media outlets circulated misleading photos and videos simply because their source initially seemed credible.
Dr. Arwa Al-Kaali, a researcher and media trainer, warns of another equally dangerous factor: “unconscious bias.”
Kaali explains that some journalists are drawn to news that aligns with their personal or political beliefs without adequate verification, thus falling into the trap of disinformation — sometimes without even realising it.
She says: “A journalist who cannot separate professional objectivity from personal convictions gradually loses the ability to question sources, even if their messages are misleading.”
She also stresses the danger of full reliance on official sources, affirming that “the professional environment in which a journalist matures determines their resilience against the flood of information.”
Despite differing views on who is more vulnerable — the young or the experienced — the point of agreement remains clear: No one is completely immune. Only those who cultivate a culture of constant verification and systematic scepticism can survive.
Dr. Omareen sums up the formula:
“Journalism is not about parroting what is said, but intelligent scepticism and continuous testing of information before adopting or publishing it.”
In an age where lies wear a thousand masks, it is no longer enough to be fast or experienced. One must be patient, a skilled investigator who never stops asking questions.
Farhat Khedr, a Syrian investigative journalist specialising in open sources and fact-checking.