GUYANA-Regional media practitioners told emerging technologies are allowing a distortion of the truth.

GEORGETOWN, Guyana, CMC—Professor Paloma Mohamed, Vice Chancellor of the University of Guyana (UG), said Friday that emerging technologies are fracturing public discourse, enabling powerful actors to control narratives and marginalize truth.

I am addressing the two-day Media Summit hosted by the Media Institute of the Caribbean (MIC) in collaboration with the UG and the Guyana Press Association (GPA). It is being held under the theme “Evolving Media Business Models in Turbulent Times.”

“We are not just losing control of the newsroom. We are losing the very idea of reality. Synthetic facts, deepfakes, personalized algorithms, they’re not just tools; they’re weapons of distortion,” Mohammed told the summit’s opening ceremony, which is being held virtually and in person.

She called for a reinvention of the media ecosystem, noting that emerging technologies are fracturing public discourse, enabling powerful actors to control narratives and marginalize truth.

“Media is no longer just a mirror of society. It’s a battleground. Suppose we don’t fight for truth now. In that case, we risk becoming complicit in our obsolescence,” she told the participants, describing the current media landscape as one plagued by a “synthetic information system” where artificial intelligence (AI) generated content, clickbait culture, and influencer-driven misinformation collide to drown out credible journalism.

“It’s not just about speed or reach. It’s about responsibility. Journalism must be the moral compass in a disoriented world,” she told the ceremony.

The summit is sponsored by ExxonMobil, Caribbean Airlines, and the United Nations Guyana. The agenda includes issues such as data journalism, digital revenue models, media literacy, and AI safety.

MIC president Kiran Maharaj said the newsroom’s operations need to be rethought, while GPA president Nazima Raghubir warned that traditional media is under siege, particularly from technological and political pressures.

“We are contending with a digital tsunami. And it’s forcing media entities to innovate, often with few resources, while still being expected to uphold the highest standards of journalism.”