PolicyCast

Nobel Prize winner Maria Ressa on how social media is pushing journalism—and democracy—to the brink

thumbnail image for the article Nobel Prize winner Maria Ressa on how social media is pushing journalism—and democracy—to the brink
Nobel Prize winner Maria Ressa on how social media is pushing journalism—and democracy—to the brink

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Nobel Prize winner Maria Ressa on how social media is pushing journalism—and democracy—to the brink

10 Dec 2021

The Nobel Committee has awarded its 2021 Peace Prize to Maria Ressa for being a fearless defender of independent journalism and freedom of expression in the Philippines, and particularly for her work exposing the human rights abuses of authoritarian President Rodrigo Duterte. But the prize is also a de facto acknowledgement that Ressa has become something of a one-woman personification of the struggles, perils, and promise of journalism in the age of social media. A longtime investigative reporter and bureau chief for CNN, she began thinking about how social networks could be used for both good and evil while covering terrorism and seeing how it was used to drive both radicalism and build movements for positive change. She originally founded Rappler, her Manila-based online news organization, as a Facebook page, but now she says that one-time Harvard student Mark Zuckerberg’s dominance as a worldwide distributor of news has become a boon to repressive regimes and a threat to democracy worldwide. Rappler’s mission statement is to speak truth to power and build communities of action for a better world—but for Ressa, speaking truth to power has come at a high personal cost. She has been subjected to harassment, criminal and civil legal action, and even arrest, even as she has refused to back off even an inch. When we spoke for this interview, Ressa was just finishing a visiting fellowship at the Kennedy School, where she was affiliated with both the Shorenstein Center on Media, Politics, and Public Policy and the Center for Public Leadership.
philippines democracy press freedom algorithms journalism social media nobel peace prize repression facebook podcast digital journalism harvard kennedy school harvard university policycast ralph ranalli rappler president rodrigo duterte maria ressa mark zuckerberg

Authors

Ralph Ranalli, Maria Ressa, Susan Hughes, Natalie Montaner, Lydia Rosenberg, Delane Meadows

Duration
42:13
Episode number
231
Published in
United States of America

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