Three decades of soaking up the one-sided perspectives of partisan media outlets have made Maltese more savvy in identifying news bias, sociologist Godfrey Baldacchino believes. 

"It makes us a little bit smarter and more sensitive to the way in which media has a plot or a plan," Prof. Baldacchino tells #TimesTalk. "The facts want to go somewhere, and we don't necessarily want togo down that road". 

Malta's party-owned media, however, should not be equated with the 'fake news' epidemic that has spread across the globe, he warns.

"When we talk of fake news, we're talking about an attack on truth, not a manipulation of truth - and the internet lends itself to that".

In this #TimesTalk interview, Prof. Baldacchino discusses fake news, what we can do to limit its spread, and how Malta's national identity has changed over the past 15 years.

"Malta is now more at ease with itself," says the professor who back in 2002 had polemically asked "is Malta a nationless state?" 

Watch the full #TimesTalk interview in the above video.