Xiaoyun Ma
 |
| courtesy hastac.org |
The print readership is declining
while trust in the news media is at an all-time low. However, the digital news
world boasts about 5,000 digital news sector jobs which focus on engaging their
audience through social media such as Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram,
according to Pew
Research Center.
“In the digital age, it is easier
than ever to publish false information, which is quickly shared and taken to be
true,” said Katherine
Viner, the new editor-in-chief in a long-form Guardian
editorial-cum-mission statement.
Through the wireless internet,
people have seen the world more than they were used to seeing, not only
disclosing new and often uncomfortable truths, but also undermining the
traditional concept of truth. Because of social media, everyone could have live
streaming his or her stories on Periscope or Facebook, which traditional
journalism such as Radio or Newspapers has not done before.
The digital technologies have reinforced
the citizen journalism and empowered potent truths to emerge from the swamp
through an unfiltered lens. The prominent instances of citizen videos could be
traced back to the 1963 Zapruder film of the Kennedy assassination and the
event of Arab Spring.
“First-hand witnesses cannot see
the big picture,” said Yves
Eudes, a reporter at French-based broadsheet Le Monde. “They’re not trained
to understand whether what they’re seeing is relevant to the big picture or to
see what really happens.” Unlike traditional journalism where it’s relatively
safe to presume the news circulated is accurate. Through apps like Twitter’s Periscope,
anyone could record and have live videos anything, and they post it as fact. The
primary goal of journalism is to be fair and objective, but the story angle and
the excess excitement that citizen journalists on social media provide could be
discriminated and narrow.
The live-streaming used to rely on
the satellites and professional television cameras. Nowadays, the generalization
of the smartphones has made “going viral” as easy as clicking on the apps. None
the less, the live-streaming incidents of police shootings and the suicide of
teenagers have raised the questions about the accountability and ethics code of
the digital technologies.
Philando Castile, a black motorist,
was fatally shot by the Minnesota police officer. Castile’s girlfriend, Diamond
Reynolds, who broadcast the shooting’s aftermath on Facebook. The case had involved
the racial tension and the violence, which is arguable in public debate on
whether should using a moral filter to content. Since the live-videos social
media has gradually become an important source for mainstream news outlets, it
might be necessary to censor the unappropriated content such as discrimination,
nudity, and violence.
On the other hand, since everyone
could have self-reporting, people nowadays post fabricated stories or share the
link of clickbait without even take a close look. In this tightly connected
world, no matter how significant advancement the technology could bring to the
truth industry, fact-checking and re-checking is more necessary than ever
before. One of the crucial features of technology in the journalism is low cost
and speed, which could be a double-edged sword. With the fast speed and zero
costs, gossip websites like TMZ and are filled with either fake news which
based on either groundless rumors or complete fabrication.
No matter how overwhelmed
transformation the newest technology could bring to the journalism, the news
reporting is always about seeking and reporting truth objectively.
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