Collective memory and the challenges of digital journalism

Even though journalism has always been considered distinct from history and has itself always aspired to newsworthiness, it is one of the most relevant cultural and social areas for the production and maintenance of collective memory. Journalistic information systematically and continuously shapes the way in which communities in modern societies order past events. Disintermediation and transformations in the processes of production and use of information radically challenge the methods consolidated by a centuries-old path of news-making. Particularly, the main critical question today is: can misinformation shored up by the spreading of fake news distort memory and impact negatively on people's perception of their future? This essay attempts to analyse the risks and opportunities that these transformations have introduced in the context of the production of public memory, trying to avoid apodictic readings and highlighting the ambiguity of concepts that are often in mainstream use today.