Mixed Media Creative Critical Essay – Part Two: Letters to the Editor

(Ashleigh Davies & Meg Bennett)

(Mixed Media Creative Critical Essay – Part One: News Article)

 

Immediacy in the Online World

Thomas J. Johnson and Barbara Kaye’s article makes mention of immediacy within journalism, to which some would rebut with questions exploring whether or not a desire for immediacy makes news more or less credible. However, journalism has always relied upon immediacy even when presented in its more traditional print form. “The ability to bring forward news to an audience as fast as possible has been a priority, and an ideal, for practitioners of journalism since the dawn of the profession” (Steenson 2011, pp.691).  Still, this movement towards online journalism seems to be a concern for many. The changes brought forward by the Internet have placed emphasis on two main ideals when journalists search to distinguish themselves from other providers of information: independency and accountability (Steenson 2011, pp.691). They are accountable both to themselves as professionals and to the public interest. This is why fairness and balance, as well as trustworthiness and credibility have become increasingly important.

There is a common argument that in our digital age, anyone can do what journalists traditionally have done, and so where is the profession heading? The growing popularity of the World Wide Web has created an atmosphere where anyone or any business can be a publisher of something not dissimilar to a newspaper.  However, audiences are smart and often smarter than given credit for. People have an idea of who to trust and who to be skeptical of online. Everyone knows not to trust the rumours in gossip magazines, just like they know programs like channel two’s ‘ABC news’ are considered more reliable and trustworthy than a program such as ‘Today Tonight.’ In this way, audiences filter information themselves and are able to disregard websites they may not trust or perhaps simply dislike.

Today, audiences have been redefined as users and producers of content. Sources become publishers in their own right and deadlines have become a thing of the past. New journalistic practices need to be put into place to keep up with changing standards. Traditionally, ideas like independence, objectivity, and accuracy, have been portrayed as vital to the professional ideology of journalism (Steensen 2011, pp. 689). These values are still correct but it could be argued that the new online and interactive medium of journalism actually serve these purposes better. “Interactivity is a core characteristic of online journalism, and it is a concept that floods the literature on online journalism with all its different meanings” (Steensen, 2011, pp.690). The boundlessness of the Internet – hence the World Wide Web – allows for greater interactivity and a more balanced sphere of political views. The opinions of many make it a more objective field for participation and discussion. It is this interactivity and immediacy that shape the ‘‘liquidity’’ of online journalism (Steensen 2011, pp. 690).

The profession has changed more in the past ten years than the past century and it seems from Thomas J. Johnson and Barbara Kaye’s study, that young audiences are comfortable with this changing environment and therefore it makes sense that they were found to be most trustworthy. In answer to Thomas J. Johnson and Barbara Kaye’s final question, the profession of journalism will not become obsolete. Its promising feature is its appeal to young people. There will always be a demand for credible and immediate news. This fact is not disappearing any time soon because people are constantly hungry for information. The profession is not dying. It is just evolving.

“The role journalists play in democracy is far too important to give up on it” (Aeikens 2008, Quill). Journalists are the critical link between what is happening in government and the citizens who need the information to make sure it is operating correctly and this will not change. However, the way information is shared has changed and it will likely continue to do so (Aeikens 2008, Quill).

 

Steen Steensen

 

 

 

References:

Aeikens, D 2008, ‘Our profession is not dying, it’s just changing’, Quill, December, Communication & Mass Media Complete, EBSCOhost, viewed 15 October 2014.

Steen Steensen (2011) COZY JOURNALISM, Journalism Practice, 5:6, 687-703, DOI: 10.1080/17512786.2011.604243 ‘COZY JOURNALISM

 

 

 

 

Citizen Journalism is a Big Part of Modern News Reportage

Image 1: Should you trust citizen journalism?

citizenjournalism

In the context of our current, online technological landscape, shifts in communication, content sharing and industry have never been so prominent. Journalism is one of many industries undergoing significant changes due to the role of the internet, with the journalists and readers alike adapting to the new technology. But in light of these changes, journalism is developing in ways that are altering the shape of the profession.

The phenomenon known as ‘citizen journalism’ is rapidly becoming a significant and vital aspect of journalism. When once the reportage of news was reserved for trained professionals, civilians are now able to report that same news to increasingly large audiences across the globe. While large, established news organisations are still made up of these qualified people (and I’m not suggesting that will change), citizen journalists are producing content that is being consumed by the public more frequently than ever before. It is for this reason that when researches such as Johnson and Kaye claim that trust in online news is rising, the extent to which they studied the role of the citizen journalist must be questioned.

In an article published earlier this week, Johnson and Kaye claimed that their research suggested that current audiences place more trust in online news than their traditional counterparts. While this may be the case, the researchers failed to adequately discuss the role of the citizen journalist in helping to establish or dissolve this sense of credibility. Indeed it is not easy, some would say even impossible, to claim that citizen journalism is or is not trustworthy as the variables are countless, from the individual doing the reporting to the story they’re covering. However it would strike me as negligent to forgo discussing the role this new phenomenon plays in instilling trust in online journalism.

The concept of untrained civilians reporting the news begs some doubts in credibility. The idea that these people “can only produce commentary, analysis and opinion” strikes many as concerning, and the fact that they’ve had no training in the field does suggest that they’re “simply unqualified to produce original news content”. Would we allow an amateur to deliver of babies or design our roads? Of course not. As Nick Lemann, the Dean of Columbia Graduate School of Journalism, said ‘‘it sounds obvious, but reporting requires reporters.’’

Nevertheless, people are becoming increasingly computer literature and with an understanding of the online environment comes and understanding of online communication. The audience is learning how to deliverer better, timelier new reports and the increase in reporters often results in increased immediacy, an aspect of news reportage which is becoming not only desired but expected.

So while “citizen reporters are quite capable of producing news” it is important to note that “they are hampered by a set of undeniable weaknesses”. Where professional reporters have access to reputable sources who add credibility to a piece, citizen journalists may not. Where professional reporters have training and experience, which also adds credibility, citizen journalists may not. I am not claiming that citizen journalism increases or decreases the credibility of online news reportage, but I do seek to prompt experts, such as Johnson & Kaye, to dedicate more research to the impact that the citizen journalist has on the trust that audiences place in online journalism.

 

Zvi Reich

 

 

 

References:

Lemann, N 2006, ‘Amateur Hour’, The New Yorker, 7 August, viewed 10 October 2014, <http://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2006/08/07/amateur-hour-4>.

Reich, Z 2008, ‘HOW CITIZENS CREATE NEWS STORIES: The ‘‘news access’’ problem reversed’, Journalism Studies, vol. 9, no. 5, pp. 739-758, viewed 10 October 2014, Ebsco Host, <http://content.ebscohost.com.ezproxy.lib.rmit.edu.au/ContentServer.asp?T=P&P=AN&K=34084989&S=R&D=ufh&EbscoContent=dGJyMMTo50Sep644zdnyOLCmr0yeprJSsKe4TbKWxWXS&ContentCustomer=dGJyMPGrskyzrbFKuePfgeyx44Dt6fIA>.

 

 

 

 

Feed the Young Ones!

In their recent study investigating credibility of news information online, academic scholars Thomas J. Johnson and Barbara Kaye have “found online media to be judged more credible than traditional versions.” It makes sense that the most relied upon sources on the Internet are deemed most credible because the sites can be seen as official and dependable, generating user trust and loyalty. However, what Thomas J. Johnson and Barbara Kaye failed to do was survey anyone who was not a politically interested web user. Had they have done this they would have found many more people to agree there is a media crisis of credibility within today’s society.

The idea that we needed a fourth estate – that being news media – came from the intellectuals of the Enlightenment period. As members of the ‘fourth estate,’ it is the journalist’s work and mission to interpret the functioning of government, and it is in his or her power and obligation to make sure these government officials are doing what the public has voted them in to do. Sadly, with the switch to an online medium for news information, the forum by which these messages are being sent to the public is now unstable.

In an age where the public is blessed to have so much information at their fingertips in seconds, the damnable curses of this high-speed era mean that what the public hear now seems to contradict the other half (Los Angeles Time, 2001).

What people know and discuss now depends on which version they have read or heard. While it makes for good debate, more traditional communications used to allow corrections to overwrite inaccuracy before misinforming the public.

Thomas J. Johnson and Barbara Kaye touch on the idea of journalists having to sacrifice accuracy for immediacy. However, there should be no sacrifice. The “credible” online medium of publication means that there is no filtering of interaction and comments made by those “unqualified producers,” breeding another legal headache; types of feedback received can come from ignorant and indifferent people from all around the world (Smethers 1998, pp. 20). These cannot be edited in advance and though they can be taken down, there is no stopping their exposure to many within seconds beforehand. Thus, a newfound vulnerability in online journalism has been created.

These newfound issues perpetuated by interactivity beg for a heightened awareness of journalistic standards and ethics for those responsible in producing news. The question Thomas J. Johnson and Barbara Kaye leave on but fail to answer, is what lies ahead for the future of journalism as a profession? In response to this, it is vital that young and coming media professionals are educated so not to devalue the Internet as a communications medium. While there are benefits such as the “speed of delivery of information and convenient electronic editing, there are those overly concerned about it affecting the conduct of public affairs” (Smethers 1998, pp. 21).

Perhaps the most contributing factor that is clouding electronic publishing is the fact that “professionals seek to disseminate credible messages through a medium with a public image that is anything but wholesome” (Smethers 1998, pp. 23). It is for this reason and those mentioned above, that the importance of adequate education for those seeking to pursue journalism has never been so prominent.

Future journalists must be nurtured. They must be able to develop skills in sophisticated and ethical decision-making.

 

Steven Smethers.

 

 

 

 

References:

Cyberspace in the curricula: New legal and ethical issues Smethers, Steven. Journalism & Mass Communication Educator52.4 (Winter 1998): 15-23.

Faster it goes, confuser we get. (2001, Jun 15). Los Angeles Times Retrieved from http://search.proquest.com/docview/421782894?accountid=13552

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