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Trust in media is vital in a world where algorithms vie for your eyeballs and money

Marianne Thamm
By Marianne Thamm
8 Apr 2025
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‘Traditional’ media will survive if readers know the source of information is trustworthy, facts have been checked and the story is fair and unbiased – none of which is applicable to social media.

We have regular “learning Fridays” at Daily Maverick with our cofounder, Styli Charalambous. Changing times need understanding, explaining and discussion.

These sessions are aimed at continuing to make journalism meaningful for our readers – how to bring the world out there in here and make sense of it.

The trust our journalists have earned over the years is the antidote to an age in which the algorithm cultivates brain rot and encourages doom scrolling. So much information, so little wisdom or knowledge.

Social media is speech-incentivised, provoking engagement and making huge profits along the way. And the more it can make you feel, rather than think, the better it has done its job.

It was different at the start of the internet, though it still harbours potential for good as much as it does for malevolence, just like life.

Trust matters


Trust matters because the people who trust journalists with their stories, the whistle-blowers who tip us off, or those whose stories we share, assume a world they can trust.

They assume we work within the law to stop those who break it. And ours is law embodied in the Constitution. The law is where the line is drawn. Break it and it matters to society as a whole.

South Africa has a long history of “battle-ready” journalists and fearless truth tellers. It is in the DNA of this country’s media and can be found in the work of Percy Qoboza, Nat Nakasa, Henry Nxumalo, Zwelakhe Sisulu, Noni Jabavu, Donald Woods, Juby Mayet, Ruth First, Max du Preez, Ferial Haffajee, Sam Sole, Mandy Rossouw, Stefaans Brümmer. The list is long.

Add to that the photographers Peter Magubane, Ernest Cole, Alf Kumalo, Jürgen Schadeberg, Sam Nzima, David Goldblatt, Jodi Bieber, George Hallett, Zubeida Vallie, Lesley Lawson, Fanie Jason, Greg Marinovich, Kevin Carter, Guy Tillim and more.

They all brought truth to readers during a time of relentless propaganda and censorship. The propaganda was the well-oiled mouthpieces of the government, the state broadcaster and newspapers funded by those who believed in white supremacy. This, of course, is no longer the country in which we live, thankfully.

Battle-ready for the baddies


But when State Capture began to throttle the country, reaching its peak in 2016, journalists were veggereed (combat-ready, or fit for purpose). They had been since the first sniff of the arms deal began to hang about the ANC like a bad smell.

Various news cycles have come and gone in my 12-year involvement with Daily Maverick and each time we have been battle-ready. Our investigative journalists have ploughed through Ace Magashule, Julius Malema, Floyd Shivambu, Jacob Zuma, John Hlophe, Brian Molefe... The list is long and contained in the final report of the Zondo Commission into State Capture. Steinhoff gobbled hours of poring over reports and evidence.

Colleague Haffajee’s Power Chat podcast with the self-described “alt-right” Joel Pollak, senior editor-at-large of Breitbart News and Trump supporter, has drawn wide response. There are those who loathe Pollak and all he stands for and those in South Africa who support him.

Pollak lived in this country for a short time and worked as a speechwriter for Tony Leon. It is where he claims “a number of experiences shattered his left-wing worldview”. The ANC’s support of “anti-Israel and antiSemitic” sentiments had been “eye-opening” for him, he says. Returning to the US and Harvard Law School in 2007, he chose “conservatism”.

Pollak represents a particular view and voice on South Africa in the US. To understand what this is, is to try to know it and put it to the test.

Greater good


Daily Maverick was the first publication to record the history of the building that collapsed in George, crushing 34 people in May 2024. This remains the biggest building disaster in South Africa and will have repercussions for years to come.

We were able to obtain all the public documents submitted with regard to the construction site because someone trusted us with this information.

Although independent reports may have been finalised and handed over to Western Cape premier Alan Winde, it is actually the specialised team of senior police members working on the case who have mined all this information and gathered much, much more.

Read more: What do the US politicians gunning for SA have in common?

The team members have dug deep and wide, and the investigation, which has taken them all over the country, is nearing completion. After that it will be up to the National Prosecuting Authority to decide what the consequences are.

Stability depends on trust in institutions and laws that are vital for the health of fellow South Africans and the country, and the political path it has chosen.

Trust, like respect, is earned and not just given.

We thank you all for the continued trust you place in us in this current Potemkin world of make-believe and outright deceit. DM

This story first appeared in our weekly Daily Maverick 168 newspaper, which is available countrywide for R35.

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