Presentation 7, Week 9 - Legal and Ethical Dilemma

The career of being a journalist is often wrought with issues, be it legal or ethical. In this week's presentation, the issue of defamation and the sub-judice system is being thoroughly explored by the presenters.

Firstly, defamation. There are two types of defamation to be found which are slander and libel, and they are the spoken and written acts which causes a negative impression on an individual by the public. This is a serious case as at times when journalists word sentences in a particular way that seems innocent enough, it can be taken in a different context depending on the perspective of the reader. Wording sentences that can be taken as insinuation is also something to be wary of lest you find yourself getting sued.

The other issue that was discussed is the sub-judice system. The purpose of this system is to ensure a fair trial for an accused person without any form of insinuation or prejudice, also known as to avoid a "trial by media". Words are powerful things and phrasing things in certain ways can cast a positive or negative light on people, and this will undoubtedly sway the opinion of those involved in court and trial cases I.e the jury in Western court. So during the sub-judice period, there is a limitation on how much journalists can report on the case and the accused. If found to have breached the laws revolving the sub-judice period, the journalist in question is liable to be held in contempt of court and will be punished accordingly.

Journalism is serious business.

Presentation 6, Week 8 - Public vs Private

The topic of what's in the public interest and what constitutes as a right to privacy is rather interesting. We have here the roles of journalists - to seek the truth, convey information, and to inform citizens. But on what grounds do journalists have the right to invade someone's privacy?

This then depends on one's code of conduct, morals and ethical integrity, on top of the ruling laws regarding privacy in each individual country or state. But there are still certain situations in which the code of ethics are rather ambiguous in what is right or wrong.

For example, what makes certain information gained from public figures for the publics' interest? How do you define and identify what is of the publics' interest in the first place? Such questions need to be asked and thought about thoroughly before any journalists commit their time and effort in pursuing that news story.

Another interesting dilemma is in the case of celebrities. They willingly and knowingly walk into roles that puts them in the eyes of the public, so does that gives us the right to poke and probe into every aspect of their lives? They are just humans after all, so where do we draw the line on what to report on?

At the end of the day, it depends on the individual journalist to decide and make the call based on their own set of ethical guidelines. Of course, external factors do play a part as well, for example the difference between reporting in an Eastern or Western culture, so journalists are always walking on tightropes when submitting news pieces.

Presentation 2, Week 4 - Who will pay for journalism?

So who will pay for journalism?

Without thinking about it, most people would answer that consumers and readers are the people paying for journalism. They think literally and single-mindedly, that readers pay for newspapers and that's how the journalism industry thrives. To a certain extent, yes, consumers make up some portion of journalism's revenue but they don't make up the bulk of it. Can you imagine trying to make a profit from selling A THICK WAD of papers filled with news for a measly 90 cents? I don't think so.

The correct answer would be advertisers; they are the ones keeping the journalism industry afloat. But the trend of traditional journalism moving onto the online medium is worrying for the journalism industry as the price for advertising space on the net is significantly cheaper than paying for space on print. Sure, advertisers will move where the readership is but would it be enough to cover the cost of keeping the journalism industry alive?

There are currently no substantial solution to this problem, but the worrying belief that journalism will die out is unfounded. One of the presenters for this topic, Benjamin Chung, said "Journalism is not dying out, it's the media,"; which I strongly agree with. Print journalism is still thriving, it's just that with consumers being more technology-savvy and wanting immediacy of news, they're turning to the world wide web for their news fix.

If online news provider are worried about the decreased advertising revenue, there are ways of recuperating part of the loss. One of them would be adopting a paywall model in which consumers are needed to pay a subscription fee before getting full and unlimited access to the news site.

So in the end, if you think about it, the same two groups are still paying for journalism despite the shift to an online medium. There are still advertisers paying for space, and consumers are still paying for content. Also, there is still the fact that print journalism is still pretty much alive and kicking and it's not dying out soon. In fact, traditional papers who set up online versions of their papers are gaining even more readership on top of their regular readers. One can assume that they're getting money from both sides of the field, yes? Lucky them then.

Presentation 5, Week 7 - Truth and Objectivity

Journalism, it strikes great terror upon evil and wields the spear of truth and justice.

Does it really...?

(Yes it does. Sometimes.)

But what is this, it seems that journalists tend to rely on external sources a lot, namely wire agencies? That is not good. To put too much faith in wire agencies without fact-checking is a deadly sin for any self-respecting journalists, so why?

Time is money, you cry!

But so is your reputation and credibility! (I cry back.)

And what is this! Media releases by PR agencies? What has the journalism industry gone to?

But alright, there are uses for PR agencies as they are useful sources for first-hand information on government facts and data but again with the over-reliance!

Don't do that.

The end.

Presentation 4, Week 6 - Online Journalism

Online journalism - a great source for alternative news. But instead of praising its concept, let's talk about the negative aspects of online journalism as it's much more interesting.

One method of partaking in online journalism is to own a blog and share your views on the events taking place that is reported on the news (or not). Since everyone can own a blog, this means everyone can express their opinions, and this form of journalism by regular Joes and Janes is called Citizen Journalism.

Citizen Journalism is all fine and dandy if not for the fact that it creates an "overwhelming freedom", as one of the presenters of this topic so interestingly put it. What this means is that on the internet, anyone can say anything and still remain anonymous. So this churns out good journalism, and bad journalism and netizens need to understand what it means to really be an online journalist.

Just because you have a camera and internet access, that does not mean whatever you put up online can be considered as news. The purpose of reporting is to inform the public information of value, not trivial information such as what you ate for breakfast or what you wore to school today. While it may interest close friends and family, it will not interest the general public.

And then there is the existence of search engines. You cannot live without search engines. Try it, I dare you. Try to find information on the exact 17 causes of teeth skewing and discolouration* without the aid of a search engine. But with such a tool, all sort of information is available to you with just a few clicks.

So what about search engines and why is it bad? Firstly, majority of netizens will click on the link of the first search result without double-checking if that page will be relevant to your cause. So if that's normal behaviour for people, who's to say that journalists themselves won't be practicing such acts? I'm sure journalists use the internet quite a fair bit to research on their news piece and if they don't practice diligence while using search engines, credibility of journalism will plummet into the drain and down to the earth's core.

In conclusion, don't be too trusting of alternative media alright?

*I kid. There are no 17 causes of teeth skewing and discolouration. ... Or are there?

Presentation 3, Week 5 - Globalisation vs Localisation

This week's topic was presented by my group, and it discusses the dangers of globalisation and how it affects the journalism industry negatively. Globalisation in itself is a good thing - it advances many aspects of the world for the better in terms of economy, technology, culture and communication. Globalisation generally means the process of interconnecting different parts of the world and as Wallerstein (1974, 1979, 1980) stated, "the process of making world economy dominated by capitalist models". But is that a good thing really, especially the rather alarming term "dominated by capitalist models"?

We know that there are a handful of transnational corporations (TNCs) having a hold of smaller companies, like for example within the journalism context, Rupert Murdoch's Fox Network holds a terrifying amount of power over several broadcasting stations and newspapers. This basically results in a convergence and standardisation of news as all content that are being disseminated have to go through the approval of Rupert Murdoch's ideal and agenda, and content are recycled between sister companies. This also creates credibility issues and lack of diverse opinions.

So to combat this standardisation of news, consumers then turn to alternative media, namely going online for their source of information.But with TNCs getting more powerful as theyform mergers and alliances with smaller companies, it's only a matter of time before they get a hand on an online content provider and there goes your "alternative" media.

Solutions for this problem hasn't been all too forthcoming, but our given reading materials state that the best anyone can do is for individual countries and states to enforce a law that will allow broadcasting stations a level of autonomy for example. But again, responses for this solution has been rather underwhelming. If no one wants to take the initiative to enforce local laws against letting TNCs complete control, then globalisation will eventually be seen as an act of evil instead of progress.

Presentation 1, Week 3 - Citizen Journalism

The topic of Citizen Journalism has been rather popular nowadays when talking about the journalism industry. Elisa and Joyce made a decent attempt at presenting this topic in class, especially their meticulously detailed report on the differences between the writing styles of mainstream media and alternative (online) media. They pointed out that the most obvious difference in style is the informal tone used when writing for an online media.

While this may be true, I think there is a need for them to further refine this proclamation. Alternative media can be split into two aspects - the online editions of traditional prints and Citizen Journalism. Online editions of traditional prints would obviously require a professional style of writing, so informal tones are discouraged by the editors. Citizen Journalism on the other hand has no rules and restrictions on writing styles, so writers are free to choose how they want to phrase their sentences.

But that is not what's really important on this topic of Citizen Journalism. Based on the presentation by Elisa and Joyce, I think a lot of people are confused on the true meaning and definition of Citizen Journalism and this confusion and ignorance needs to be addressed. Elisa believes that ANYTHING posted online is considered as journalism, even a person who does a daily blog update about what they ate for breakfast. Journalism in the traditional sense means the reporting and dissemination of news that is for the public's interest, so there is a sense of professionalism and journalistic integrity to be had while reporting news. So while yes, Citizen Journalism lets everyday people write up their thoughts and opinions, it NEEDS to be of journalistic value. Who cares about what some random stranger ate for breakfast?

This flippant understanding of what online and Citizen Journalism is leads to the questioning on the credibility of news found online. Everyone is free to post something online and there is no gatekeeper or filter to ensure the quality of content. This is one worrying aspect of online journalism and will still be scrutinized for time to come; not until there is a measure and degree of professionalism from all writers who plans to report on news online.