Doing Better as Journalists in the Technological Age

 By Ethan Bloomfield

eb348519@ohio.edu

Courtesy Joelle L.

The biggest problem facing the world's privacy is, of course, big tech. The fact of the matter is that, while it used to be, total surveillance on a massive scale is not a dream anymore. While people tend to value their privacy, this reality was built and reinforced willingly with avenues of entry such as social media, smartphones, and innovative home technology that can sell your data for profit and ease of marketability. As journalists, we essentially have two options: submit to such a reality and cooperate with it (or even use it to our advantage) or fight against it. 

Fighting on behalf of the people is what journalists do. As watchdogs, we are supposed to keep people in power accountable. If those in power do any misdeeds, we must bring them to light. For example, this article by BBC outlines how the New York times exposed Facebook's lies about privacy and selling data. That is how it should be. In a perfect world, the corrupt and power-hungry would be kept in check, and the people could use their leverage to make a change if there was a problem. 

Additionally, we are to uphold the truth according to our ethics codes and the values of our organizations. Advancements in technology make capturing or obtaining video, audio, and documents much more manageable, incentivizing questionable behavior. Publications like TMZ routinely show off and often sensationalize very private information for profit, which we know of. 

However, the way forward with such powerful tools as new technology is not dubious. Tech makes journalism easier, as we can search much harder in far shorter amounts of time. It also makes journalism far more wide-reaching, as people can look at news websites at any level from anywhere in the world. The problem is when tech is used for dubious purposes like mass surveillance or data collection. 

Journalists have access to tools unseen by even just the generation before them. According to Pew Research, trust in news media has fallen to almost all-time lows for many Americans. It is imperative to build trust with the People by shying away from using these tools in a way that is (or even seems) misaligned with traditional ethics in the field. We must use our tools to press tech companies, politicians, and those that uphold these power structures to do better.