Weeks four and five readings – The Fifth Estate and The Credible Journalist in a Digital Age highlight the changing world for journalists and traditional news media as the shift in power moves closer to the individual and the general public, educated and uneducated alike.
Jericho wants everyone to register their name and credit card before they can make a comment online. In his chapter Never Mind the Comments, he thinks that abuse and character assassination can be stopped in this way. Although I do not necessarily think Jericho is proposing that only qualified commentators “should apply,” some people may think he comes across as rather smug. Journalists, newspapers and newspaper owners have not really recovered from “bad press” since the News of the World showed a lack of respect for readers, people and journalism itself. This newspaper and some journalists paid a high price for ignoring a standard code of practice and a lack of ethics. Although not all newspaper businesses or journalists have acted with such a lack of integrity the level of trust in journalism has been severely impacted.
In today’s reality tv world everyone can make comments about people, what they wear, who they are with and much more if they wish. And anyone can comment on previous comments. Reality TV was created to fill airtime on the ever-increasing number of television channels. Journalists played an important role in making it popular. How many times has the latest evictee from Big Brother or the last person voted off XFactor been a guest of the morning news shows? Ok morning news is more like infotainment but it is still one of the main ways many people receive news. Some people even receive this online as they take the bus to work.
Social media has opened up the two-way communication channel which means that journalists and commercial news organisations have to embrace the engagement from the public. Many of them do even if it is to build up a fan base. Whilst the rules are still evolving there is probably too much focus on the negative aspects such as abusive, racist or sexist comments. Social media has changed fundraising not only through crowdsourcing but more importantly through online pledges. Unlike the former telethon type efforts money pledged is actually pledged. In this year’s City to Surf almost $4m was raised online. Comments on runners’ fundraising pages play an important role in a call to action to either participate or donate.
Today’s journalism students are learning how to operate in this new world where everyone has a comment or viewpoint to make and they can do it in so many ways online. The traditional journalist has had to adapt or leave. I have met some risk averse ex journalists (but still working in media) who believe that social media network sites such as Twitter are not helping journalism yet they think YouTube is ok. The fact that Twitter is often a breaking news source cannot be overlooked even by those who wish to keep journalism traditional. Fortunately from listening to both Kath and Tom during MDIA 5003 lectures it is good to learn that this is an exciting time for journalism despite the rapid changes and the uncertainty brought about by the growth of social networking sites.
There is still a need for authenticity, integrity and credibility. In fact the level is probably higher than before. Today’s journalists can no longer rely on the newspaper’s credibility as Hayes, Singer and Ceppos mention. In some ways the journalist may be helping to make news organisations more credible as they add some of their personality and emotions through blogs, Twitter or other social media networks.
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