Social Media As a Challenge for Quality Journalism

Social Media As a Challenge for Quality Journalism

“The latest malicious media gossip that Vanguard gave editorial endorsement to is a tweet from an obviously fake twitter handle that impersonates Emir of Kano Muhammadu Sanusi II,” @Malsanusilamido, which released a tweet on December 13, 2014. “The following day Vanguard had this headline: “Muhammadu Sanusi II says help is on the way, Boko Haram will be defeated.”

“It editorized the tweet and implied that the emir was hinting at the Buhari’s presidency as the panacea to Boko Haram.” Culled from Notes From Atlanta titled: Emir Muhamadu Sanusi II and The Vanguard’s Internet-age Junk Journalism, published on Saturday, December 2014, by Farooq Kperogi Ph.D.

Some years back in 2011, I wrote an entry for a competition with the above title organized by Bayero University Kano, Freedom Radio Kano and Deutsche Welle International, for the “young and up-coming journalists.”  I was at least less experienced and immature, if not dangerously ignorant, but still, years to come, ahead of and better than the current staff editing the Vanguard newspaper to not have known that journalism demands reporting events in and around the society, rather than remaining glued on social media, waiting someone, perhaps inept and quack does for you, the gathering, reporting and bringing their vomit and you swallow it undigested. It’s very bad if our newspapers will be “scouting and scooping” anything they come across on social media and share it unverified, where scammers can easily impersonate a page of public figures and big-names. If it’s mischief, we can forgive the newspaper, but if it’s ignorance, no-no.

So, I have to produce the revised piece as my contribution to our current practice of journalism. Enjoy reading.

After a long-haul journey towards the world’s transformations, from age to age, generation to generation and from century to century, the evolution and revolution of modern technology have catapulted us into a new age; where we have reached a point in which information is power, seen as nuclear warheads. In this world of technological advancement and the power of modern tools, the dynamics and activities of journalism have changed from what we had been familiar with in the past.

The existence of Internet and social networking sites: twitter, YouTube, Wikis, Facebook, etc, are increasingly contributing and playing vital roles in the process of collecting and disseminating information in media arena. The introduction of social journalism have changed the activities of media, to which the consumers have now become the producers and distributors, people formally known as audience who were in the receiving point of media news are now taking control of journalism and distributing information.

According to Woody Lewis an American blogger, he defines social journalism as about listening as well as interaction with others who have something to say. Social journalism also known as participatory media, is the concept of members of the public playing active role in the process of collecting, reporting, analyzing and disseminating information. Audience participatory such as users’ comments attached to news, personal blog, photo or video footage captured from mobile phone or camera, or local news written by a resident of a particular community; makes a great, rapid development in gathering and distributing information faster, and facilitates the shrinkage of the world into a hamlet.

In 2004, when the 9.1 magnitude underwater earthquake caused a huge Tsunami in Indonesia, news and footage came from the many people who had experiences the wreckage caused by the Tsunami and was widely broadcast. During 9/11 attack, many eyewitness accounts of the event came from social journalists or citizen journalists. A study explored that from then on, mainstream news organization are increasingly involving audiences in their research and telling stories. Futurists had predicted that by 2021 social journalists will be producing fifty percent (50%) of news to the media organizations for public consumption.

Funny! Citizen Journailsim comes with news break every bits of second which keeps people staying up 24/7 on Internet in an effort to keep up to date. Social media makes people less active about the real world, they concentrate heavily on their gadgets, they aren’t aware of exactly what’s happening right beside them, engulfed by an invisible togetherness with others, apart but attached, separate and yet bound by  a force, a kind of magic by proof as  more mystics and super-high technologies are blending to form shocking realities as data is poured in, in which tens and thousands of Internet users share sentiments and feelings right from their bed comforts, where people have to carry; eat, walk, drive and go to the bathroom along with their phones, a situation of excessive concentration on gadgets that a leading American sociologist professor describes as modern madness. Social media!

Nonetheless, the participation of audience is shaping the future of news and information transmission process, which provides independent, reliable, accurate, wide-ranging and relevant information that democracy requires. The idea behind social journalism is that people without formal journalism training can use modern tools to post or write something online in order to create argument and generate augmented fact on their own, in collaboration with others with their own opinions. For example, a parson can write something about government policy, events, news and other issues on his or her blog or in an online page or forum to hear the views and opinions of others. Or a parson can snap a photo of newsworthy events happening in their local area and posts it in online sites, for others to see and read.

Social, civic or citizen journalism became part of journalism movement as a countermeasure against eroding and concealing the veracity in the news media and the rifle of public disillusionment with politics and civic affairs. The covering of irregularities during Nigeria’s 2011 presidential election, and the events of fuel subsidy removal in 2012 where social journalists resorted to Internet pages as an e-meeting point. Social journalism is now being explored via new media tools such as mobile phones, cameras, and Internet sites have the potential power to report events in places with danger and difficulties for reporting. For instance, during Iranian election in 2009 when foreign journalists were strictly barred to enter the country, the micro blog, twitter, facebook and other social networking sites played a vital role in covering the events. While Arab spring in Middle East and North-Eastern Africa has been heavily covered with the brutal crackdown that came with it.

In traditional world, news organizations, governments and other agencies simply gave out information and people had to consume it without their opinion. But now, today’s audience expect to choose what to read and believe to contribute their views and opinions. Social journalism is not acting or replacing media journalism, but an extra layer of information and diverse opinion; so it becomes a search engine to which debate over truth and accuracy of news are explored. On the contrary, this is what led to media revolution where many traditional and modern media began to report comments on how the Internet and social media began to affect news organizations and quality of journalism for worse.

Street journalism demands reporting events happening in and around the society, but some social/street journalists do not bother to go even outside of their page domain to get news from the original source. They rather remain glued on facebook or tweeter or blog; somebody does for them the gathering, reporting and distributing the information and brings it to their doorstep for final consumption. All they do is scouting and scooping anything they come across and share it unverified, especially on the facebook, where everyone is a media baron and seasoned journalist without prior training.

Social media turns one into a total stranger in their own land. News might break in a local community and the residents would begin to see, conflicting reports coming in from outsiders other than the reality.  A person can send out a word, later they would come across news sending back to them, that they will wonder if a similar incident happens somewhere, while to their utter amusement, it is their own words twisted.

The Pew Research Centre conducted a research and found out that people have less confidence in the accuracy of the reports and news from social media than they had in the last two decades. The relationship between social media and news organization is witnessing events and reporting them for others to see and read.

Charlene Li and Josh Bernoff has argued that news organization have to morph into social journalism and adopt it, vis-à-vis its negatives effects over the quality of journalism about some flawed activities that make people skeptical about the news and information found on such Internet sites about the bad habit of some people of reporting only what interests them rather what needs to be covered. This could seriously damage the quality of journalism though many believe that watchdog journalism is equally important.

Moreover, the negative impact of social media on journalism is now street journalists put pressure on editors over what to report and when. This makes editors abandoning the ethics of journalism to go ahead and publish unverified, unedited and inaccurate news in order to be first in breaking news, while not focusing on verifying it instead. But more so, it is the emergence of non-professional practitioners as social journalists which brings about doubt in the minds of the readers over the reports, news and information which is bound to debilitate the quality of journalism.

finally, there are ways to integrate the quality of journalism by building a concept of understanding that connects equal values which will make news room more responsive, so that audience’ comments would be shared to free the news organization from the suspicion of publishing only their own opinion. Giving autonomy to staffs in methods and decision making and embracing audience as valued partners. Sharing stories and organizing workshops with other media and other news-related agencies. Organizing memorable events, competitions and debates to attract young audience and sharpen their talents as future journalists. Adopting participatory journalism in a meaningful way that increases trust, shared responsibilities and mutual benefits in informing civic information and socialization.

The future we want build, the change we want to make and the quality we want to bring in journalism, sustainability and reliability will defend solely on how well media enable conversation with people and encourage them as well as providing them with basic journalistic ethics to guide their participation and activities.  Social media has become a part of human phenomenon in terms of collecting and sharing information, social interactions, peace, culture, trade, diplomacy, and many other human endeavors.