#FakeNews #FastLove

61cm x 61 cm
Oil on canvas

Artist Statement

“Newspapers have a legacy of breaking news and uncovering stories of historic proportion, yet they are losing ground to a generation of consumers embracing digital and mobile alternatives”

-Jack Loechner[1]

The merging of technology in the era of  of Industrial Revolution 4.0 is substantially changing  the structure of news media.  Audiences are more inclined to seek news and content at social media platforms with (#) hashtag-driven topics that are most  popular at the particular time. Although this emerging form of news communication is the preferred method of spreading information, it is important that we pay attention to the overall effects of this hashtag phenomena. The convenience of the hashtag phenomena magnifies the ethical challenges that threatens the established trust-based relationship between readers and journalists

I argue that the most critical issue social media have brought is the ethical challenges and its impact on the decline of trust in this already disputed concepts of journalism as profession and journalists as professionals.  From this perspective, how would NSTP confront this significant shift in news communication despite its reputation as an established news media for 175 years? How can it be relevant in this current paradigm and yet hold true to its ideals while creating relationships with its audience? Should the concept of journalism in itself be reoriented and reconstructed to be more  particular to the sociocultural context that is keen to listening and reflecting a variety of voices and stimulates discussion and engagement with the public and within communities?

These questions have influenced me in creating this art piece titled “#fakenews  #fastlove” with the size of 61cm by 61cm. It speaks of the speed at which social media happen, and what can be accomplished within seconds. It plays into the hashtag bandwagon that captures the fleeting interests of social media users. The energy felt from this artwork disrupted our lull of passivity which are dulled through a constant barrage of media images and frenzied life pace.

[1] Loechner, Jack. “Gender and Age Consumption Differs in Evolving Media Usage Patterns.” MediaPostBLOGs (Oct. 2009): n. pag. Web. 20 Oct. 2009.