In Jindabyne, a town nestled on the edge of the NSW Snowy Mountains where ABC journalist Hamish Macdonald grew up, a local debate over wild brumbies has splintered the community entirely. Residents argue passionately about whether the horses even exist in meaningful numbers, whether they damage the alpine environment, and who can be trusted to tell the truth.
On the surface, it looks like a straightforward regional conflict. But Macdonald sees something deeper: the total collapse of any shared foundation of fact. In his new three-part ABC documentary series The Matter of Facts, the seasoned foreign correspondent argues this fragmentation is the defining threat to democracies worldwide. The debate rages because neither side will agree on a single set of scientific facts.
Macdonald left social media in 2021 whilst hosting Q+A, seeking refuge from online hostility. But the experience that set him thinking was deeper: his years as a foreign correspondent watching how authoritarian regimes deployed doubt as a weapon. "My background as a foreign correspondent has given me the opportunity to piece different parts of this puzzle together," Macdonald explains in the documentary. "I really reflect a lot on what it was like being in Egypt at the start of the Arab Spring and seeing how powerful the sowing of doubt is."
He draws a troubling parallel between those regimes and contemporary democracies. In autocracies, citizens don't trust what they see. In the West, the same fracturing is happening differently but with comparable consequences. The series takes audiences to the frontline of the global information wars, where information is manipulated to influence what we believe, how we behave and who we vote for.
The threats are tangible. Social media use is linked to an increase in political engagement, but also increases in polarisation, populism, and distrust in institutions. Research cited in the documentary shows that 97% of us don't seem to have the faculties to properly fact-check. Australia, despite being ranked the 12th strongest democracy globally, has not escaped these currents. The strength of Australian democracy has waned since 2020 and the outbreak of COVID-19.
The documentary does not simply diagnose the problem; it travels from Taiwan to the Philippines to examine how disinformation operates as a geopolitical tool. For the people of Taiwan, relentless disinformation campaigns from China threatened to upend their hard-won democracy. Technology platforms and algorithmic amplification are not neutral infrastructure: they are designed to maximise engagement, which often means amplifying conflict and outrage.
Macdonald's advice for audiences is deliberately unglamorous. Voters who are better educated, empowered by a rigorous media landscape, and encouraged to actively participate in politics, will be more resistant to the forces underpinning democratic backsliding. He advocates "triangulation": when you encounter information that provokes a strong emotional response, seek out the same story from other credible outlets and read their coverage. Cross-reference rather than cascade.
It is laborious work. It requires effort that an algorithm-driven information diet discourages. But the alternative is what Jindabyne now faces: a community locked in irreconcilable camps, unable to solve local problems because no common facts exist to build from.
The Matter of Facts airs Tuesdays at 8.30pm on ABC TV and streams on ABC iView.