Inspire Change SEASON 7-293 When Journalism is the Problem…

This week on Inspire Change, Gunter deep dives into journalism integrity and the editorial decisions that tend to shape what is presented to the public. This is especially a problem as billionaire corporations start owning media and shaping the news instead of being truly non-bias and neutral.  So, we invite you to comment and reach out we would love to hear your thoughts on this matter.


This week's gratitude goes out to those of you listening in France as your country has returned to the Top Ten.CONGRATULATIONS at landing at #8 on the top 10 global listeners list!!
We thank for tuning in and promoting positive social change.  This makes you a part of Gunter’s efforts in transforming not only men's lives but lives in general and we are grateful you have joined us. I, DeVonna Prinzi the Co-Exec Producer and our Showrunner Miranda Spigener-Sapon sincerely thank you and ask that you please take the time to like, follow, subscribe, and share as your efforts make a difference to everyone here at Inspire Change with Gunter.   Please remember If you want to share your story of social change, feel free to reach out  to the show directly. Please see the show-notes for our contact information. As always keep Inspiring positive social change.

On a side note: Gunter Swoboda and Lorin Josephson's neo-noir/supernatural thriller novel Amulets of Power, Book I A Brian Poole Mystery is officially ON SALE EVERYWHERE you like to get book, but if you want a discount please consider ording direct. ANY LISTENER who order's direct will get a surprise gift. https://shop.ingramspark.com/b/084?params=3RoOA6kVQ7ZgmqSK9LdnvNyDAZZFsg9IMaLUaprPgXK

The entire team at Inspire Change with Gunter would like to bring attention to our neighbor listeners to the south of us in Mexico!  Particularly all of you in Mexico City for this week's gratitude journey.  Congratulations!!  For the first time you are only 5 spots away from the "Top Ten Global Listeners List" as you made it to #15 .  Thank you/Gracias  to each and every listener.   We appreciate everyone of you and are grateful for your likes, shares, follows and subscribes, but most of all for you continuing to inspire positive social change!

Make sure you LIKE SUBSCRIBE & FOLLOW our new Official YouTube Channel of Video Shorts series: https://www.youtube.com/@InspireChangewithGunterSwoboda/videos where we will be adding new videos and content every week from Gunter and our guests.  https://www.youtube.com/@InspireChangewithGunterSwoboda/videos

Gunter Swoboda and Lorin Josephson's new novel Amulets of Power, Book I - A Brian Poole Mystery trilogy.  CHECK OUT the critic's praise:

Editorial Reviews
"Gunter Swoboda and Lorin Josephson's entrée novel weaves you in a deep and captivating story of thematic and impactful visuals of traditions and the obligations that come with it.  The reader will be hooked and ready for the next book in this trilogy." - The Associated Press

"Captivating character development and unforeseen plot twists; the novel guarantees to enthrall readers with its seamless merger of historical depth and contemporary drama, ensuring a riveting and electrifying read." -Publishers Weekly

"Gunter Swoboda and Lorin Josephson's debut novel Amulets of Power blends noir detective with the supernatural; set in London, England." - KTLA News

Visually impactful1" - Australian Post Observer

https://www.amazon.com/Amulets-Power-Book-Mystery-Mysteries/dp/0999266861/ref=sr_1_1?crid=3138WSYER8QW7&dib=eyJ2IjoiMSJ9.0xI2jpo4SQUQV36nWY8d4Q.e7_ogc11xe5fR6J7kl3m5EfTJeYBQty35YqdG-eoutY&dib_tag=se&keywords=Amulets+of+Power%2C+Book+I%3A+A+Brian+Poole+Mystery&qid=1745973832&s=books&sprefix=amulets+of+power%2C+book+i+a+brian+poole+mystery%2Cstripbooks%2C171&sr=1-1 (Worldwide free shipping for Prime Members)
https://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/amulets-of-power-book-i-gunter-swoboda/1147319115?ean=9780999266861
https://www.booktopia.com.au/amulets-of-power-book-i-gunter-swoboda/book/9780999266861.html (Australia)

DON'T FORGET to join LEGENDS OF POWER SWOBODA-JOSEPHSON VIP Inner Circle. It includes a Pre-Order of Gunter Swoboda and Lorin Josephson's book which you can order here by joining the Legends of Power Swoboda-Josephson VIP Inner Circle - Its only $80 per year and you get a lot of benefits, events, and it includes membership into the Changemaker Collective here:https://www.bonfirecinema.com/bonfirevip

Watch the promo video narrated by the amazing https://markredfieldstudios.com and then  JOIN the Legends of Power Swoboda-Josephson VIP Circle that includes the Changemaker Collective! https://youtu.be/9JkFFWv7s0I?si=0yA7GjwWen-3OhRI

All points, viewpoints, discussions and subjects discussed on this podcast are those solely of the opinions and research  of Gunter Swoboda  for educational and information pur

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Hello, listeners, it's good to siboa here with some exciting news.
We're on the lookout for sponsors to join us on
our incredible journey with Inspired Change with Conta. If your
organization cares deeply about meaningful conversations around masculinity, self development,
and mental health, we'd love to partner with you. Our

(00:24):
podcast has a wonderful, dedicated audience committed to personal growth
and positive social change. By sponsoring Inspired Change with Conta,
your brand will connect with listeners who truly value thoughtful
discussion and support initiatives that promote real transformation. We're incredibly

(00:47):
proud to be ranked number one in Australia and number
five in the USA on feed spots top men's mental
health Podcasts. For more information on how to become sponsor,
please reach out to Miranda Spegner sap On, our showrunner
and executive producer. We'd love to explore how we can

(01:09):
work together to inspire change.

Speaker 2 (01:12):
Now.

Speaker 1 (01:12):
Thank you for your continued support, and let's keep inspiring
change together.

Speaker 3 (01:18):
You're listening to Inspire Change, the broadcast that strives to educate, motivate,
and empower men to challenge traditions of masculinity to guide
us through the intricacies and intersections of emotions, relationships, and
male identity is renownced psychologists, author and speaker Gunter Swubota.
This is Inspire Change.

Speaker 1 (01:40):
Before I begin the actual podcast, I would like to
respectfully acknowledge the gategor people of the Order Nation, who
are the traditional custodians of the lane on which I work.
I would also like to pay my respects to their elders,
past and present. Welcome everybody to another episode of Inspire

(02:02):
Change with Gunta.

Speaker 2 (02:04):
I'm your host.

Speaker 1 (02:05):
Welcome back everybody to another episode of Inspired Change. Yes,
I'm back from my R and R and feeling pretty
good about having had the break and spending some really
good quality time with family.

Speaker 2 (02:22):
So, you know, as we talked.

Speaker 4 (02:26):
About, this is a podcast that takes a really hard
look at the structures that shape our lives and then
ask what needs to change and how.

Speaker 1 (02:36):
Do we do it without losing our humanity. I'm your host,
Gonda Swerboda. I'm a psychologist, author, speaker, and the founder
of Making Good Men Great. So what do I want
to pick up in two days podcast? Well, my wife

(02:57):
sent me an article that I say only had the
urge to put out there on the podcast to be
discussed because I believe it is central to some of
the stuff that's going on at the moment, and the
question that it poses and that isn't necessarily asked enough,

(03:21):
is journalism itself part of the crisis we blame on
social media. We spend so much time criticizing the algorithms,
the influences, and the fake news peddlers, and yes they
certainly deserve scrutiny, people like Joe Rogan, Jordan Peterson, but many,

(03:43):
many more, even people that are much more benign or
even highly educated. But the reality is that there's a
much older institution that plays a central role in shaping
our informational landscape. Journalism, and unlike social media, journalism still

(04:04):
claims to hold itself to a higher standard.

Speaker 2 (04:07):
But the question is does it?

Speaker 1 (04:09):
And this is what I want to dig in to
in today's podcast. So recently The Sydney Morning Herald published
a piece titled good Journalism Reveals problems and just asks
more questions. Now, on the surface, this seems like a
noble statement of purpose that journalism isn't about neat solutions

(04:35):
or propaganda, but about uncovering the complexity of the world
real journalism, it argues, creates this comfort. It leaves us unsettled, curious,
and provoked. But that raises a deeper issue. When journalism

(04:57):
only asks questions, who takes response ability for the consequences
of what it reveals? And how does that model of
journalism handle its own complicity in framing, emission and agenda setting.
If all it does is revealed, does it ever self

(05:18):
reflect Now in our landscape, we certainly have some very
divergent journalistic positions foxtell MSNBC. So I could name a
few more, but I won't do that. So I want

(05:38):
to basically speak frankly here.

Speaker 2 (05:44):
For years now.

Speaker 1 (05:45):
We've scapegoaded social media for the erosion of public trust,
and to be clear, those platforms seriously deserve that hard critique.
But journalism, particularly legacy journalism, has hidden behind the illusion
of objectivity while making editorial decisions that are anything but neutral. Again,

(06:10):
let's look at Murdock Press and so on. Take headlines
designed to provoke outrage, or the subtle slanted in story selection,
or worse, the commodification of trauma, when journalists swarm a
tragedy not to bring clarity, but to outcompete rivals for traffic.

(06:37):
Media company companies like Nine Entertainment, who now own The
Sydney Morning Herald, are commercial giants. Their loyalty isn't to truth,
it's too shareholders, what sells, what makes profit. That means
journalists are often under pressure to feed the content machine. Clicks, engagement,

(07:04):
outreach cycles. All that sound familiar. Well, that's not just
a social media problem, it's a journalism problem too. Now,
I want to be fair. There are many, many, many
outstanding journalists in this country and globally. Kate mcclaimant is one.

(07:29):
Her investigations into corruption and organized crime have had lasting impacts.

Speaker 2 (07:35):
Michael West is another.

Speaker 1 (07:37):
His deep dives into tax avoidance by major corporations of
broad scrutiny where it matters most. These are examples of
journalism fulfilling its highest calling, spreading truth to power. But
over time, certainly over the last twenty to twenty five years,

(08:00):
is my sense is that these stories have become rare.
They take time, resources, courage. The Wall Street Journal is
an example in which that's taken place, The New York Times,
The Atlantic in the United States, and they're often buried
beneath layers of lifestyle pieces, celebrity scandal and sports clickbait.

(08:28):
So we've left with attention. The institution can still do
great work, but structurally it is not incentivized to do so.
Journalism has been hollowed out by decades of cost cutting

(08:51):
and commercialization. Investigative reporting is expensive, questioning one's editorial bias
even more so, and many right wing and ultra right
wing politicians like Trump, Throne or so on, have thrown

(09:14):
another spanner in the works, and that is turning the
spotlight on the media as the enemy, as.

Speaker 2 (09:23):
The enemy within.

Speaker 1 (09:28):
So we've got a real problem in our culture for
all of us who are exposed and who partake in
the banquet of information that's being disseminated into our cultural network,
Who do we believe?

Speaker 2 (09:50):
What is the truth?

Speaker 1 (09:52):
You know, the term fake news, which is in some
respects relatively new, at least on a common day to
day basis, has just exploded and wrapped up in QAnon
conspiracy theories, Russian and Chinese propaganda and influencing. We're seriously

(10:20):
in trouble because where do we find the sources of
solid reporting, not necessarily finding the truth. It's a bit
like in expecting science to be able to explain everything
it's not going to happen. It probably will never happen.

(10:40):
We make good inroads, we have hypotheses, we collect the data,
we test it, you know, and we come to some
sort of you know, not conclusion, but better questions in
that sense. But even science has been you know, thrown

(11:01):
into the rubbish spinners. You know, you can't trust them.
So we have crises like you know, the questioning of vaccines.
Now I'm not saying we shouldn't question vaccines, but I'm
saying that I've got a problem with how it's done.

Speaker 2 (11:19):
And so the idea, like.

Speaker 1 (11:22):
You know, Robert Kennedy and his ilk in just making
out landage and unsupported statesments about science, about research that
then is published in the media is again another layer
in the shit storm that exists in the information landscape. However,

(11:50):
it's not all bad news. There is another way forward,
and this is what the article draws out. It's called
constructive journalism. Now, constructive journalism doesn't abandon hard questions, it
doesnt sugarcoat injustice, but it expands the frame. It asks

(12:12):
who is doing something about this, what solutions are emerging,
what agency do people still have around the topic. The
danger with journalism that only exposes is that it risks,
disempowering us. We start to believe the world is only broken,

(12:36):
and that's where cynicism seeps in. Cynicism is disempowering. Constructive
journalism or solutions journalism pushes back. It tells stories of resistance, reform, healing,
and in doing so it invites us not just to observe,

(12:59):
but to dissipate. One can never just be observer anyway.
The observer in fact influences the outcome. This doesn't mean
glossing over problems. It means contextualizing them with complexity and
with hope. Right, So simplistic explanations are put through the grinder.

(13:25):
So from the point of view where I talk about
making good men great as a foundational movement towards change,
the deconstruction of patriarchy, the movement towards relational ethics, to
work on our connections as human beings within the fabric

(13:47):
of our collective culture, that's what's really at stakey. So
what happens if we turn the lens back on journalism itself?
What would it mean to demand more transparency from editorial boards,

(14:08):
to expect accountability not only when a journalist is called fabricating.

Speaker 2 (14:12):
But when a paper slants.

Speaker 1 (14:14):
Stories repeatedly in line with its owner's economic interests, what
if we held newspapers to the same standards of algorithmic transparency.
We demand a Facebook, which we don't actually really get,
but we at least pretend to do so. And what

(14:36):
if we the reader stopped accepting low effort journalism as inevitable.
So think about it. If we go from the personal
to the political, we by inherently taking that step, are activists.

(14:58):
It doesn't matter we're in the scale. Well, activism is
an integral part of the political process. It just depends
on where you're directing your activism. The idea that, for example,
that's been floated in Australia at the moment, that we
should abandon net zero, you know, the little bugbear for

(15:19):
the ultra right in our political scene needs to come
under scrutiny. It's a you know, it's a it's a
it's a poke in the side of rationality. You know,
we have a planet that is being destroyed through the

(15:40):
processes of the industrial revolution. And as my wife puts it,
you know, the industrial revolution is killing the planet, and
the tech pros and the whole digital space is undoing society.
It's killing us as human beings. And as much as
she's sounds dramatic, I actually hold her to be absolutely

(16:04):
on point.

Speaker 2 (16:06):
We have this problem.

Speaker 1 (16:07):
If we are now going to turn the ship around,
and for some of us who are both personally into
growth but also socially active, that ship's already sailed.

Speaker 2 (16:27):
So I'm going to reach out. And here's the invitation.

Speaker 1 (16:34):
Next time you read the news, ask yourself what story
is being told? More importantly, what story is being left
out and who benefits from that omission. We cannot build
a more ethical media environment if we don't include journalism

(16:58):
itself in our critiqu and we certainly can't fix democracy
if we treat the press as above reproach. So think
about it. Go from the personal to the political. Become active.
And I speak particularly to you.

Speaker 2 (17:20):
Men in the audience.

Speaker 1 (17:23):
Don't buy the media bullshit about alpha males, about you know,
if you show these characteristics, then you're going to be
this and you're going to be a chick magnet all
that sort of stuff, and how to reach the pinnacles
of wealth through you know, being like a wolf that
ravages the environment.

Speaker 2 (17:44):
That's rubbish.

Speaker 1 (17:46):
We know from ecological research that wolves are collectivists. They
believe and operate within a family pack. And I'd say
the word believe very clearly. I'll watch dogs and they're
lots smarter than what we often give them credit for.
So wolves whose intelligence and intuitions are shaped by the

(18:10):
natural environment are a step above the pack.

Speaker 2 (18:16):
But they don't do it from.

Speaker 1 (18:18):
A competitive basis within themselves. They take care of each other.
If one of them's wounded, the back looks after them.
We don't throw them out. And that is you know,
corporations have run on this idea of natural selection and

(18:39):
so on for years, you know, probably since the early
twentieth century, and it's gotten worse and worse and worse,
and neoliberalism has taken it to another level, right Aan
Rand and her immoral philosophy has reinforced that idea.

Speaker 2 (19:00):
Nonsense.

Speaker 1 (19:00):
And you'll hear me talk about this a lot more so,
we as men need to take the step to begin
to reflect, to deconstruct patriarchy, and to put the spotlight
on the issues that count and not get caught up
with clickbait and deceptions. You know, we can watch, you know,

(19:25):
Trump do all the sleight of hand we want, but
we know the bullshit that rests behind that. So let
me thank you for listening to inspire change and I
hope you find this thought provoking challenging and please join
the community. If this episode stirts something in you, share it,

(19:50):
start a conversation, ask better questions, educate yourself.

Speaker 2 (19:56):
Again.

Speaker 1 (19:57):
Sometimes it might mean getting off the computer and actually
reading a book, or it might be turning off the
TV because you've been watching Married at first, saw it
till it's coming out of your ears. These things valiant
for the messes. So until next time, I'm going to

(20:17):
Swiberta style white, stay human, and stay engaged and cape inspiring.

Speaker 5 (20:23):
Hello to all our listeners. This week's gratitude goes out
to those of you listening in France, as your country
has returned to the top ten. Congratulations at landing at
number eight on the top ten global listeners list. We
thank you for tuning in and promoting positive social change.
This makes you a part of Gunther's efforts and transforming

(20:44):
not only men's lives, but lives in general, and we
are grateful you have joined us. I Devanna Prinzy, the
co executive producer, and our showrunner Miranda Speidner sappone sincerely
thank you and ask that you please take the time
to like, follow, subscribing, and share, as your efforts make
a difference to everyone here at Inspire Change with Glunter.

(21:05):
Please remember if you want to share your story of
social change, feel free to reach out to the show directly.
Please see the show notes for our contact information and
as always, keep inspiring positive social change.

Speaker 1 (21:18):
Love to hear from you, and if you're interested, please
check out my work on www Dot Gotosboda dot com
or www Dot gutman Gride dot com.

Speaker 3 (21:35):
Thank you for listening to Inspire Change a broadcast. This
strives to educate, motivate, and empower men to challenge traditions
of masculinity. For more information on the Making Good Men
Grade movement, or for individual or group coaching centships with Gunter,
visit Goodmangrade dot com.