citizen journalism in asia

In the last 50 years the media influence has grown exponentially with the advance of technology. First there was the telegraph, then came the radio, the newspaper, magazines, television and now the Internet. The Internet has certainly transformed the work for journalists. Digital tools have made it easier for news gathering, communication, editing and production is now a lot more portable, inexpensive and powerful. This has also resulted to many online users assuming the roles of ‘journalists’ by creating news-related weblogs.

In the era of mobile digital technology, we now have a mobile connection to the web through a smart phone, the tablet or any other handheld devices that has been invented. Mobile users are not just checking headlines for the latest news updates on their own devices now, they are also reading longer, in-depth articles regularly. And for many people, mobile devices are adding how much news they consume now as compared to the traditional newspapers.

The new media has improved the interactivity amongst its users, allowing them to share and upload information anytime and anywhere. It has made a lot of the media information we process more user generated than ever before. Now, the Internet continues to evolve into a major news source. It is made possible for practically anyone to create, modify and share content with others by using really simple techniques with little to no expense. Citizens have the potential to observe and report more immediately than traditional media outlets do. Social media often break the news before the mainstream media. There is no doubt that those who have traditionally consumed news are increasingly ready and willing to produce content online, which is otherwise known as ‘citizen journalism’. Swarms of amateur online journalists are now putting the digital technology to use by creating publishing sites and countless weblogs. Bloggers and other amateur journalists are scooping out information from the mainstream news outlets and some are even pointing out errors in mainstream articles. People who have been made subjects of news articles are now responding online, posting their own information from their own views by providing their own perspective and counterpoints. The public is progressively turning to online sources more for news, reflecting growing trust in alternative media. However, professional news media are also providing opportunities for news consumers to participate. For instance, OhmyNews.com, a South Korean online newspaper, has more than 37,000 registered contributors, and is expanding into the English and Japanese language markets.

While new media is a powerful influencer by distributing messages abruptly in the urban development through the latest gadgets, the rural areas of the world are far behind. How people access and consume information depends largely on the type of community they live in. For instance, India has 830 million of its people residing in rural areas out of the country’s 1.2 billion population. Even though India’s development over the past two decades has been significantly rapid, it will still take a few more decades before the country becomes predominantly urban. Rural areas in India have scarce infrastructure and facilities, high illiteracy levels and low Internet penetration. While the urban Indians are more likely to rely on mobile and online sources to gather news or information, the rural Indians are more inclined to word of mouth sources. With limited access to the broadband Internet, it causes the rural residents to be more tied to traditional forms of media such as print, broadcast and radio. Print newspapers are considered most popular for following community events, local government, and arts and culture. For breaking news, broadcast is preferred over print and digital.

With the difference the two communities consume their information, the information read by the villagers of India through print might often differ from what the urban Indians read online. While the credibility of the print media and broadcast news are often seen as balanced and fair, online news is usually built on bias factors. The Internet is free to access by anyone and the ability to upload any information without scrutiny might affect the credibility of the medium as a source of information. As a result, questions have been raised about the credibility of online news. Traditional news usually will have to undergo a process of information verification before going public while most Internet sites do not use such measures. But to those living in the urban community, they have been exposed or can easily access to so many news online that they have accepted it as a credible news option and many users feel that online news credibility is not of an issue.

Many news organisations are adopting open publishing features to their own online versions now. The Guardian and other mainstream media outlets have added blogs to their sites. Many are increasingly scanning blogs and other online sources for leads on news items, and some will even hire bloggers to write news content for them. As the public turns toward online journalism, and as mainstream news outlets adopt more of those interactive features in their online versions, the media environment is slowly shifting away from broadcast and more towards a medium in which the public and audiences also have their own voices.

However, the Internet has had a substantial impact on how professional journalists perform their jobs. Online journalism differs from traditional types of journalism in some norms and practices. For example, online interactivity is able to connect related stories to each other via hyperlinks. Furthermore, the Internet allows users to act as their own gatekeepers. Due to such challenges, many traditional journalists have expressed their disagreement to journalism as practiced online because it is deviant and could potentially alter the norms of the profession. Traditional journalists are often in debates about journalistic quality and what constitutes “real” journalism online.

With citizen journalism on the rise, we are exposed to their own news presentations, especially when reporting crisis and catastrophes. First hand testimonies and graphic images will help to dramatise and humanise stories by injecting emotions and urgency. Sometimes, the raw images they take and the graphic content they experience can create certain morale to the readers to care or recognise the necessary act of what has to be done.

In spite of this, the way online journalists report or publish their news might even cause controversies or discontent to viewers. This is due to the freedom they have to process any information through their own representation. One case study will be the Indian reporter who was sacked by his own channel after his video went viral online. Mr Narayan Pargaien was reporting on the deadly floods in India while sitting on the shoulders of a survivor on June 2013. The video was later heavily criticised and his behaviour was called to be ‘inhuman’. More than 800 people have died in the floods and landslides, which swept the northern parts of India that month. The video has had thousands of views online, in which he was seen delivering news to the camera while perching on the shoulders of a man who is standing in the flood. Mr Pargaien was later found guilty of "grave misconduct” due to his action that was referred to "not just inhuman but was also against the culture" of the channel. Mr Pargaien accepted what he had done had been wrong but seemed keener to pin the blame on his cameraman instead as he was supposed to film him from the chest up. That prompted many to suggest that he still had more to learn about journalistic ethics and where to draw the line.

While Internet users are able to access any source of information online, they are also prone to commit plagiarism. The most high profile and widely publicised controversy in India has been that of Professor B. S. Rajput and his colleagues in the field of Theoretical Physics. Professor Rajput was the vice chancellor of Kumaon University and in 2002, the physicists in India created a website where some papers posted online have claimed authorship of its work. However, the principal of the university alleged that a paper that was published by Professor Rajput was entirely copied from a paper by Renata Kallosh of Stanford. Three other works by Professor Rajput and his colleagues were also found to be plagiarised. Even though Professor Rajput maintained that he has done no harm, he was later resigned from Vice-chancellorship immediately after the controversy.

With many relying on online media now as their source for news coverage, traditional news outlets are reacting with fear and uncertainty. Digital news channels are growing, surpassing radio and print in terms of audience size and engagement frequency. It is likely that digital will soon take over television as the primary news platform. Online users are also treating social media such as Facebook’s news feeds or their Twitter timeline as their “personalised newspaper”. From closing down a bookstore, to a decrease in readership, it is no secret that the traditional print media is declining. Traditional electronic media is not doing any better either. As the Internet has developed into an ever-present source of news and information, many observers and industry professionals have openly questioned the long-term viability of printed newspapers or network television news programs.

Due to the low cost of modern media technology today, anyone can put up a video at YouTube at virtually no cost. Popular videos get hundreds of thousands of views. A blog can be started for free, within minutes at Blogger. It may get ten viewers or 10,000, depending on the level of popular interest. But the viewers control that, not the providers. The traditional media professional is no longer a gatekeeper who can comprehensively go through every information online for approval. Online users program their own video, content or radio, and download what they want to their personal devices. They are their own programmers, their own editors and their own disc jockeys.

So what does it say for the future of professional journalism in Asia? India for example has all its major newspapers and television stations launch their own websites to supplement their traditional forms of news delivery. Aspiring journalists can benefit most from training on a hands-on curriculum designed to familiarise them with each and every aspect of digital reporting. The Indian Institute of Journalism & New Media (IIJNM) is pioneer in the field of digital journalism education by introducing the multimedia stream in India. Its trainee journalists may opt to study in the print, broadcast or multimedia sector. Institutions like IIJNM helps the profession of journalism to still survive on India’s media scene in the years to come. With improvement in the quality of journalism, it could lead to an advanced reporting and news delivery, guiding the country to better governance and stronger democracy.

In the past, content was essential to news publication. Today, experience is the king. Journalists now need to encourage their audience to dive into the subject, to see, hear, feel and even play with the news. Even if news organisations are still broadcasting to a collective audience, they also need to narrow their audiences to cater to individual needs. Unlike traditional journalists who write stories and do not care as much on the audiences’ demands or the market response, the new breed of journalists need to know how to interact, influence and maintain relationships with the online community via social media. In other words, they now will need to play the role of an interpreter more than a reporter.

There is no doubt that the new media is bringing about disruptive changes and challenges to journalism. But the future of journalism is likely to be progressive by the multiple layering of interactions and news experiences. Technology has not ruined journalism, instead there will be more interaction between professional journalists and their audiences, and also greater interaction among audiences. When it comes to news production and distribution, we can foresee the convergence or co-existence of traditional media and new media. News organisations can produce multimedia and interactive content and distribute it via a variety of platforms such as the newspaper, television, radio, the Internet and hand-held devices.

To conclude, journalists now will need to find ways to interact, collaborate and share. They now need to constantly create a relationship with the public to develop a better understanding of how to keep it viable and effective. Journalists will need to embrace the emerging technologies to encourage greater interaction with the public. This will help increase likelihood that the content will resonate more strongly with their audiences. The traditional news media may be declining, or even dying a decade from now, but the future for journalism still remains.

Bibliography:

Abdulla, R. A., Garrison, B., Salwen, M., Driscoll, P. and Casey, D. (2002). The Credibility of Newspapers, Television News, and Online News. University of Miami, FL.

Allan, S. and Thorsen, E. (2009). Citizen Journalism: Global Perspectives. Peter Lang Publishing Inc., New York.

Anderson, P. J. and Ward, G. (2007). The Future of Journalism in the Advanced Democracies. Ashgate Publishing Ltd, England.

Bowman, S and Willis, C. (2003). We Media: How Audiences Are Shaping The Future Of News And Information. The Media Centre at The American Press Institute. Reston, Va.

Cassidy, W. P. (2007). Online News Credibility: An Examination of the Perceptions of Newspaper Journalists. Journal of Computer-Mediated Communication, 12: 478–498. doi: 10.1111/j.1083-6101.2007.00334.x

Cecchini, S. and Scott, C. (2003). Can Information and Communications Technology Applications Contribute to Poverty Reduction? Lessons From Rural India. Inform. Techno. Dev, 10: 73–84. doi: 10.1002/itdj.1590100203

Gudhade, V. P. and Gudhade P.S. (2013) Sources of Information for Rural Development in Tribal Area of Melghat, Maharashtr. Vol 1 , Issue 4. http://researchdirection.org/UploadArticle/52.pdf

Kovacic, M. P., Erjavec, K. and Stular, K. (2009). Credibility of Traditional vs. Online News Media: A Historical Change in Journalists’ Perceptions? Izvorni Znanstveni Rad, Slovenia.

Pavlik, J. V. (2001). Journalism and New Media. Columbia University Press. New York Chichester, West Sussex.

Thurman, N. (2008). Forums for citizen journalists? Adoption of user generated content initiatives by online news media. City University, London.

Bibliography: Abdulla, R. A., Garrison, B., Salwen, M., Driscoll, P. and Casey, D. (2002). The Credibility of Newspapers, Television News, and Online News. University of Miami, FL. Allan, S. and Thorsen, E. (2009). Citizen Journalism: Global Perspectives. Peter Lang Publishing Inc., New York. Anderson, P. J. and Ward, G. (2007). The Future of Journalism in the Advanced Democracies. Ashgate Publishing Ltd, England. Bowman, S and Willis, C. (2003). We Media: How Audiences Are Shaping The Future Of News And Information. The Media Centre at The American Press Institute. Reston, Va. Cassidy, W. P. (2007). Online News Credibility: An Examination of the Perceptions of Newspaper Journalists. Journal of Computer-Mediated Communication, 12: 478–498. doi: 10.1111/j.1083-6101.2007.00334.x Cecchini, S. and Scott, C. (2003). Can Information and Communications Technology Applications Contribute to Poverty Reduction? Lessons From Rural India. Inform. Techno. Dev, 10: 73–84. doi: 10.1002/itdj.1590100203 Gudhade, V. P. and Gudhade P.S. (2013) Sources of Information for Rural Development in Tribal Area of Melghat, Maharashtr. Vol 1 , Issue 4. http://researchdirection.org/UploadArticle/52.pdf Kovacic, M. P., Erjavec, K. and Stular, K. (2009). Credibility of Traditional vs. Online News Media: A Historical Change in Journalists’ Perceptions? Izvorni Znanstveni Rad, Slovenia. Pavlik, J. V. (2001). Journalism and New Media. Columbia University Press. New York Chichester, West Sussex. Thurman, N. (2008). Forums for citizen journalists? Adoption of user generated content initiatives by online news media. City University, London.