* Excerpt from a lecture delivered in Aruba to journalists on September 7, 2013
Journalists and their Media
The
journalist of the 21st century is necessarily a multi-media content
provider engaged in a relationship with a growing variety of other providers
now including bloggers and other social media practitioners who do not hold
traditional journalistic values as part of the requirements for publication of
news and information.
The
additional level of enquiry to validate the authenticity of information, to
ensure that published information is fair, balanced and factual, remains the
sacred concern of professional journalists. The temptation to view social media
as a competitive element of the mass media environment has now too often served
to narrow the distinction between professional journalists and crowd and
blogger sourced material.
It is best,
I believe, to view the social media as playing a potentially supportive and not
entirely competitive role. For while the new media are useful in providing the
sketchy coordinates of our reality, only the professional journalist is
specifically charged with joining the various dots and presenting a fuller
picture of the reality.
I would
contend that while some important modalities of production and distribution
might have changed, the basic value systems driving the practice of journalism
have generally remained challenged but constant.
The
challenges, often read as new opportunities, relate to the ubiquity of new
media, universal access, immediacy of access, high levels of interactivity and
what one media researcher has described as “extreme content customization.”
The more
direct threats to traditional journalism have focused more exclusively on what
are considered to be the highest values and standards of the profession – the
authenticity of content, source verification, accuracy and the truth which are
now at the command of virtually anyone with a smartphone, tablet or computer
with an internet connection.
American
academic, John Pavlik, back in the year 2001, suggested that in many ways these
somewhat mixed blessings had the potential to create a better form of
journalism, “because it can reengage an increasingly distrusting and alienated
audience.”
News as Commodity
What we need
to bear in mind as well are the implications of all of this on the bottom lines
of the media industry. News is fast becoming a de-commercialised component of media
content. It is now essentially viewed by media consumers as a commodity
acquired for free on the internet through Twitter and Facebook and via mobile
SMS blasts. The immediacy of these platforms has meant that tomorrow’s
newspaper, if it already doesn’t, needs to move beyond the presentation of hard
news, except in cases where it is needed to provide professional, journalistic
validation.
The
immediacy of online content has also challenged the most dynamic of mainstream
mass media, radio as a provider of timely news and information. The growing,
but yet limited, embrace of internet radio in all its manifestations is a
unique proposition occupying the minds of researchers and, in my view, is
ignored at the peril of current operators of traditional enterprises as is the
case with smartphones and handheld receivers.
The
fast-paced growth in new technologies and re-calibration of professional
resources is yet to be determined as anything permanent. However, it is clear
that while the objective professional values of journalists remain constant,
the terms of their engagement in the profession are destined to continue to be
in a state of persistent change.
It has been
noted, for example, that there are as many as 113 million blogs worldwide –
many of them news oriented and regularly cited by mainstream news
organisations. These are professional outfits designed to generate an income,
pay employees and make use of a business model which challenges mainstream
media in almost all aspects. They provide timely news and information, apply
traditional news gathering values and are multi-media with high quality audio
and video. In some instances, mainstream media with an online presence are
mirroring the modus of these operations.
Citizen Journalism
There is, as
well, the emerging trend to validate the work of what are described as “citizen
journalists.” Making use of social media platforms such as YouTube, Twitter and
Facebook, together with dedicated websites, these practitioners do not work for
pay, do not necessarily feel obliged to observe basic journalistic guidelines
and, in many instances, promote their own causes. However, their ubiquitous
presence has proven to be a unique asset in some measure embraced by the
mainstream media.
Coverage of
the Arab Spring and ensuing developments over recent years, for example, has been
significantly fed by the work of “citizen journalists”. One recent U.S. study conducted by the
Newspaper Research Journal concluded that citizen journalism actually
complements rather than substitutes commercial news sites. The study in fact
found that commercial news sites provided a more sophisticated environment
allowing for greater interaction with their audiences.
People with
cell phone still and video cameras with uploading capabilities enabling almost
instant access by anyone else, anywhere in the world with a mobile phone,
hand-held device or computer have nevertheless stormed the news market in
unprecedented ways.
In the
process, the gatekeeping role of mainstream media on news and events has
virtually disappeared. The most important implication for the practice of
journalism is that the attitude of “autonomous expertise” applied to determine
what is important from what is not has been greatly undermined. Some may
contend this is not entirely an undesirable side-effect, since the gatekeeping
role of journalists has never fully satisfied the objective of impartiality on
the question of special interests, including the nature of media ownership and
control itself. In the Caribbean context this requires extensive examination
and debate.
Emerging Challenges
The media
industry has also been challenged by the fact that converged media platforms
which now include vital telecommunications components are moving Caribbean governments
to increasingly combine broadcasting and telecommunications regulatory domains.
Such an approach is fraught with danger, especially in the face of creeping
official encroachments into broadcasting and media content.
Regulatory
instinct has moved some of the technical discussions in the direction of
prohibitions on content with serious implications for freedom of expression and
press freedom. Among the countries of the Organisation of Eastern Caribbean
States (OECS), for example, proposed new broadcasting legislation imposes
criminal punishments for breaches of broadcast content guidelines. This would
have the effect of criminalising acts of journalism.
In Grenada,
an Electronic Crimes Act passed by both houses of parliament seeks to punish
persons guilty of transmitting material that is likely to be “grossly
offensive”, can cause “insult’ or that can “annoy” anyone else. Fines and a
possible prison sentence are among the penalties.
Such an
unenlightened approach to dealing with new media is more likely than not to
impair the positive benefits from these emerging platforms. Increasingly,
governments are setting their sights on online content as a target for
oppressive regulation and action. This is particularly so for countries in
crisis, but is by no means an exclusive phenomenon.
Free
expression advocates are staunchly against new regulatory encroachments on the
internet and are stressing that protections and remedies already exist via long
accepted legislative derogations to freedom of expression including privacy
rights, defamation laws, actions against hate speech and the protection of
children. Imposing restrictions on what is being described as offensive,
insulting or disrespectful content signify steps backward in the effort to
guarantee freedom of expression.
There is
also now a growing focus on the extent to which the application of copyright
laws can conflict with freedom of expression and, by extension, freedom of the
press – both through traditional means and via the internet.
The Centre
for Law and Democracy, for example, recently published a report in which it
argues that the current framework of copyright rules should be examined from a
freedom of expression perspective “in order to determine how copyright should
be reformed to best achieve its underlying purpose of promoting and protection
expression.”
This is an
eminently sensible proposal and Caribbean societies would do well to have a
closer look at the issue.
Privacy Rights and Online Security
The issue of
privacy has frequently been raised as a problematic area of concern in the
digital era. I would suggest for the journalist this is a multi-dimensional
challenge. The first is the application of privacy rights by individuals with
respect to persons on whose activities they report and the second would be the
right to privacy of the journalist.
The advent
of the internet essentially created an entirely new network of both public and
private spaces. Your email messages would, perhaps, be considered to be your
private online space while your blog and LinkedIn, Facebook and Twitter
accounts can pretty much be considered your private spaces. The popularity of
these social media has grown considerably in recent years. In Aruba, for
example, it is estimated that more than half the population now has a Facebook
account – or 52,520 accounts.
These platforms
offer some measure of privacy. Facebook Chat would be one example. However,
privacy is only defined by the degree to which the businesses offering such
services accord a level of security to ensure there is actual privacy. The best
available advice on the use of email accounts now includes the use of
encryption services to ensure that confidentiality is maintained, at least to
some degree.
The subject
of internet security and the protection of journalistic sources and data has
become one of the most urgent and somewhat contentious matters for modern journalists.
The fallout from the National Security Agency issue involving CIA computer
specialist, Edward Snowden, and accompanying difficulties being faced by UK
Guardian journalist, Glenn Greenwald have stressed the degree to which the
digital age continues to offer some old challenges in new clothes.
This issue
of internet security for journalists thus presents us with evidence of one of
the most difficulty challenges in the current context of new online frontiers.
