Saturday, December 24, 2011

Fall of the traditional reporter and Rise of the citizen journalist ?



Not really. For all the stories of gloom and doom that are written about how traditional ( read Print) media will die, and will be overtaken by citizen reporting – I believe that it won’t. Good “old” media reporters, who know their business and do a thorough job will always be in demand for one reason : their credibility.
A case in point is that of Ms.Aisha khan, a young 19 yr old girl from Kansas who went missing recently. In less than 24 hours of her having gone missing, I noticed several Face Book posts, a video of her parents being interviewed and a barrage of information on how she possibly could have been abducted.
While this was very plausible, it turned out that she had merely gone into hiding ( god knows why?) and returned “safely and unhurt”.
What is the moral of the story and what is the connection to the point made earlier, you may ask.
Well, the point is this : Social media enthusiasts ( including her family and friends) reacted too soon – without enough due-diligence and fact checking. All the well-known names in the world of Journalism : Robert Fisk, Walter Cronkite, Fareed Zakaria, Riz Khan have built their reputation by credible fact-checking and reporting which is accurate, informative and insightful; and not based on rumors or written in such haste that there is no room for seeing through the lies.
In this case, a good “Old media” reporter would check to see if there is a police complaint, before even thinking of writing a story. He/she would look for facts, perhaps take enough time ( at the expense of being a bit slow), but get all the ducks in a row before crying wolf.
The trouble with Social media reporting ( also its strength ironically) is its speed. Anything with an internet connection and a computer can put up bits of information, which can be called “News”.
In this case, it was the case of a girl, who decided to play a prank. But, she not only damaged her reputation, but also that of her peers, who may perhaps not heed her call for help the next time she is in real trouble.
That is the real danger.

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