Whenever someone poses the question of a journalist's credibility to me, I tend to jump right onto the side of fence where a billboard reads, "A journalist must be trained with the proper technique in order to bring out the best story."
However, after going through 2 years in journalism school and unwittingly 24 years in a 'uniquely-Singaporean' journalistic setup, I've come to realize that being a journalist doesn't require one to be trained in techniques such as writing in the Inverted Pyramid format or remembering the 5Ws and 1Hs when formulating the perfect news story.
Ok, maybe the 5Ws and 1H is essentially crucial for anything to be considered a news story, what's more important in a proper piece of journalism is....cue drum roll....the truth,
In a lot of places, the mainstream news outlets don't always carry the full picture of a certain situation or story. Take the recent General Elections in Sngapore for example and it's hard to ignore the rise to prominence of alternative-opinionated website The Temasek Review.
Journalism came into importance due to its role as a public guardian and informant - protecting the common folks from corrupt government officials while at the same time informing them of significant happenings, events and issues.
As such, outlets such as The Temasek Review and Ohmynews provides a platform for usually-unannounced events and happenings, thus painting a complete picture for the public.
Another reason why citizen journalism should not be ignored is the timeliness it can provide for breaking news. Events such as the London bus bombing in 2005 and the 2007 political crisis in Burma were fine examples of citizen journalism at its best - members of the public providing pictures in the form of self-taken photos and videos on their mobile phone.
No one can predict the timing of an unfortunate event happening so it'll be unfair to expect mainstream news outlets to be at the scene of every disaster or riot immediately upon happening.
Yes there are drawbacks to allowing citizen journalism to flourish, such as the lack of credibility in the news story or the abuse of such a system that turns it into an outlet of rants and complaints (as like how Singapore's very own citizen journalism site, STOMP, has turned out to be)
In spite of this, it is almost impossible to disregard the impact that Citizen Journalism has now made on society. Giving a new meaning to Media Pluralism, Citizen Journalism can be, in itself, a strong catalyst for Cosmopolitanism. By offering the chance for one and all to not only debate current issues but also to give voice to new ones, Citizen Journalism has rode well on the wave of technological advancement and can only portray more of its potential in the years to come.
Yes, it is a fact that citizen journalism cannot be ignored!
ReplyDeleteTechnology evolves fast, much faster than most conventional media providers.
Citizen Journalism sources, provide that niche. By letting many opinions to be heard from different points of view, everyone has the opportunity to become contributors. As a result, open minded readers have access to a more nuanced viewpoint of an issue.
Public journalism may contain so many useless comments and complains, but they could be the first to report breaking news to the world. We should not frown upon public journalism but rather try and take it as part of the whole package.
ReplyDeleteHi Terence,
ReplyDeletethis is a very interesting post. Yes I agree with you that citizen journalism sites are gaining people's attention and prominence in our society. In the past 10 years, citizen journalists have proven their capabilities in reporting news. I guess the final goal of every journalism is to keep people updated with what's happening in the society. So it really doesn't matter whether you are a professional or a citizen journalist, as long as you meet the criterion of keeping people updated with news, then you're a journalist. I think this is where professional journalists and citizen journalists meet. That's why I always believe that both mainstream and citizen journalism work hand in hand to serve the community.
Hi Terence,
ReplyDeleteThe truth is definitely ranked as one of the most important factor for journalism. In fact, Journalism started out as reporting accurate information for the people, by the people. However, I would like to pose a question on how can we better ensure that citizen journalism provides accurate and credible news reports?
- Andy Wang