Social Media and Citizen Journalists | ||
05 April 2011
Social Media and Citizen Journalists
Narrator:
This is the U.S. State Department
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Narrator:
Social media has created a new era of democratic media. In the past, large organizations such as radio stations, television stations, newspapers and magazines were the only sources of news for the mass population. Today, the Internet allows most people immediate access to information, and even lets them become contributors to the world of journalism. Blogs, podcasts, social media platforms and other technology-based communication tools empower participation and civic engagement in the events that affect society.
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The Internet allows individuals to take control of their worlds like never before. Services such as Google, Yahoo and others offer consumers the tools to organize information according to their own preferences. Individual access to news is no longer determined by powerful institutions with the authority or wealth to dominate distribution. Now, people not only control what they see, but where and when they see it. Personal media devices such as mobile phones and iPods allow mobility and time-shifting of information. And perhaps most important, networked technology gives every individual access to the rest of the Web, creating the most powerful expression of new media — participation in a world where everyone is part of the story, and everyone has influence.
The rise of new media has transformed the relationship between traditional institutions and the public, particularly in journalism. U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton recently delivered a major speech on Internet freedom.
Secretary Clinton:
The Internet has become the public space of the 21st century — the world’s town square, classroom, marketplace, coffeehouse, and nightclub. We all shape and are shaped by what happens there, all 2 billion of us and counting. And that presents a challenge. To maintain an Internet that delivers the greatest possible benefits to the world, we need to have a serious conversation about the principles that will guide us, what rules exist and should not exist and why, what behaviors should be encouraged or discouraged and how.
Narrator:
The new media environment is a bottom-up, evolving process where there is little oversight or formal workflow. The result of all these simultaneous, distributed conversations is the “blogosphere.”
Bloggers consider themselves online journalists who connect individuals and their ideas throughout the world. Many traditional journalists dismiss citizen participation and particularly bloggers as self-interested, unskilled amateurs who do not follow professional standards of fact checking, fairness, balance and objectivity. In return, many bloggers look at mainstream media as an arrogant, exclusive club that puts its own version of self-interest and economic survival above the societal responsibility of a free press.
Most blogs have at least three things in common. They are typically composed of short essays often with hyperlinks pointing to other Web pages. Blogs are also conversational: They allow readers to post comments and refer other writers to extend the discussion. In addition, blogs can bring a new measure of transparency to news coverage. They have been particularly useful in reporting breaking news and updating fast-moving situations, such as natural disasters and political upheaval. In the aftermath of the devastating earthquake in Haiti in January 2010, rescuers were able to pinpoint the location of survivors buried under collapsed buildings.
The wide availability of information and the rise of blogging have forced the journalism profession to address difficult questions at a crucial moment in its history. The debate on journalism’s future centers on issues that include control and profitability. As a result of social media’s rise, news organizations are redefining themselves as they adjust to these disruptive forces. Some are breaking down traditional barriers and bringing the audience into the process of shaping their print or online products. Others are trying to maintain visibility and profitability by moving their products online.
One of the biggest criticisms of blogging is that it lacks discipline and responsibility, particularly in confirming facts. Many bloggers are not professional journalists by training. However, the Internet itself acts as an editing mechanism. In the marketplace of ideas, wrong information is normally found and challenged, and reputations rise and fall based on the quality of the blog.
Blogs are being used to keep readers informed about what stories a newspaper is covering, and to provide feedback to the publishing organization. These two-way relationships enable readers to have more confidence in the quality and relevance of reporting. The result is news that is more interactive.
In a sense, the blogosphere is an information ecosystem in which citizens rely on each other to report, distribute and correct a story as it develops, unrestricted by deadlines or distribution schedules. News becomes an organic entity, belonging to no one except the audience.
ENDS
