Week Eleven

What effect has the internet had on Journalism? 

Benefits

• Drives the cost down $
• Internet has made journalism more affordable in terms of publishing and also purchasing the information - most of which are now free. 

• Location is Irrelevant
• Internet has made location irrelevant, in the sense that media consumers can get journalism from virtually any source, which in turn brings vast information within easy reach.

• New Tools 
• Internet gives new tools to journalists or simply anyone who wants them, such as search, online databases, the ease of making charts, Skype interviews and so on. 

• Alters the Balance of Power
• Internet alters the balance of power between readers and journalists, replacing a system in which the press more monopolised and practiced stringent gatekeeping. Now, anyone can be a journalist - Citizenship journalism. 

Citizen Journalism 

"Public citizens playing an active role in the process of collecting, reporting, analysing and disseminating news or information." 

With the advent of new media, citizen journalism is more accessible to people worldwide than ever before, allowing citizens to report fresh and breaking news more quickly than traditional media reporters.

I remember during the Fukushima Nuclear Plant disaster back in 2011, my family were all frantically trying to contact our relatives in Japan. Due to the earthquake, it was hard to get through the phone line and we were trying to grasp hold of the situation. During this period, Twitter helped me, and I believe many others too. My friends on twitter were Retweeting tweets of people trying to search for their lost ones. Some managed to successfully find each other through the use of such tweets. Also, there were various real-time reports of the people in Fukushima and videos that were all uploaded via twitter.

Here are some real tweets back then, where users were retweeting information about missing people:

The benefit of citizen journalism is that news are more real, in a sense that it is directly reported by people who are experiencing the tragedy and people who are able to observe the situation first hand. 

During the Fukushima Nuclear Plant disaster, it was said that the mainstream media was filtering many news to the public. A former NHK news anchor, Jun Hori, even quit his job because of the pressures on NHK to restrict and censor news in Japan, especially the news regarding the Fukushima nuclear power plant. He began his own public participation news sites, 8bitenews.org, where thousands of Japanese and global citizens have posted videos that are verified for information accuracy and fairness. 

You can watch his TED talk here:

The downside of citizen journalism

In Singapore we have our very own citizen journalism platform as well. There were many redundant news that became the talk of the town such as the Ahlian & Aunty quarrelling over MRT seat, to name a few. What I've learnt from this incident is the pervasive impact that citizen journalism has on our lives. Wherever you are, you are being watched or maybe even filmed. 

What comes into question here is, 

"Should we be infringing on other people's privacy by taking photos or videos of them without their permission and posting it online? Where do we draw the line between what's news worthy and what's simply the exposure of ugly acts and drawing unnecessary attention upon members of the public?"

#1 Stirring unnecessary problems

Remember the case of the 'rude' NSman who did not offer his seat to the aunty?
When it just turned out to be a cropped photo and there was actually an available reserved seat.


#2 Not a credible and reliable source

Or how about the MRT door incident that turned out to be photoshopped? 

So as we can see, there are both pros and cons in citizen journalism. If used wisely, it is definitely beneficial to the society as we are able to uncover real stories by real people. However, many would agree that the greatest argument against such user-generated content would be the infringement of privacy and the lack of credibility. Well basically, Singaporeans need to stop being so KPO and should learn to use this platform more wisely instead of just using it as a place to 'sabo' others. 

Source: https://japansafety.wordpress.com/tag/citizen-journalism/