The Fourth Estate in a New World
Traditional journalistic values have radically shifted since the birth of new media.
Journalism is a long-established profession in most parts of the world. The revolution which has given rise to the modern media has significantly influenced how news is reported or rather how the journalists have been completing their respective roles. Notably, it has changed the mode of news delivery as well as how the information is digested by the parties involved. Traditional journalistic practices are characterised by a unique way of writing and reporting news where neutrality of the information is upheld to the audiences. The traditional journalists had to undergo training to acquire basic knowledge in journalism which help them execute various duties. The common traditional journalistic media include print, television, and radio. The traditional journalism is formed on the grounds of informing, educating, holding people and the authority into account, documenting and interpreting development and changes. The practice of traditional journalists is guided by media ethics and legal issues which are initially instilled through various training. The traditional journalism is currently encountering numerous challenges, and many believe it is slowly becoming extinct with the emergence of new media or rather the modern media, which is perceived to be more convenient and timely. The new media is associated with the use of technology to acquire and deliver information which is dramatically pushing the traditional journalism to adjust its continent accordingly, causing a shift in journalistic values.
Traditional journalism has been founded on values and principles which include seeking truth and reporting it, minimising harm, acting independently, accountability and transparency. However, there are contrasting positions when considering the relationship that exists between journalists and their audiences. The traditionalists tend to argue that the relationship is hierarchical, where there is a restriction of input in the reader’s side. Conversely, the convergers feel that readers’ involvement is essential, and their ideologies from various information should count, thus the presence of modern media such as social media (Thomas, 2013). Traditional journalism has identified the need to integrate social media in their news delivery wherein most television and newspaper news social media sites as provided to the readers to submit their comments. Generally, communication within journalism is critical, and promotion of one-way communication pattern is perceived as producing information that has no direct impact on the readership, therefore; providing the public with the opportunity to express ideas and discontent is a major way of connecting with the audiences. This shows that the new media has introduced the concept of interactivity in journalism by endorsing a two-way communication model, which challenges traditional journalism (Thomas, 2013). The new media has allowed the readers to actively participate in the news production by sending their feedback to the news writers in the journalism industry.
The modern media has introduced immediacy, which is closely related to the concept of interactivity. Immediacy is closely linked to the audiences acquiring something of interest in real-time, and significantly influenced the profitability, competitiveness as well as the success and failure of the published news. The concept of interactivity on the modern media has become a matter of debate where a group opposing both the traditionalists and concergers standpoints argue that traditionally, there were various routes used by the readers to communicate with the newspaper (Schultz, 2000). They say that writing letters to newspaper editors significantly upheld journalistic authority and values as well as influenced the editorial writing when few letters were selected for print. Currently, the internet provides more open channels for readers and writers to interact which also help recognise the role of information consumers to the news production process thus encouraging journalism firms to incorporate higher interactivity in their policies.
The new media is associated with misinformation which lowers the media reliability and trust with the public, especially in democratic jurisdictions. Massive proliferation and consumption of fake news have been realised with the increased use and dominance of social media platforms like Facebook and Twitter following their easy accessibility (Waisbord, 2018). Misinformation has been recognised more on political issues by state and intelligence agencies, especially on public opinion and electoral results to generate confusion. In the political arena, information is fabricated to astutely mimic news and tap the public’s attention to belief, to influence their electoral behaviour by sharing the newsy fiction on social media. Use of fake news is not a new concept but have in history been applied severally where misleading information have been wrapped in news package. For instance, in the United States, the Conservative bloggers used the fake news to jeopardise the investigation carried out mainstream news organisations on inappropriate and unethical actions with the President Trump’s campaign and administration in the previous general elections. Other than political elites, individuals have used the propaganda model to profit and have economic gains through lying and distorting pieces of information.
The propaganda model intersects and is common with the emergence of social media, big data, and internet. The propaganda model is frequently used since the social media platforms are owned by private entities which are profit-oriented and have control of how data are presented to the users thus politically leveraging on them (Fuchs, 2018). There are much secrecy and absence of transparency following a massive competition in politics, and thus the companies organise and prioritise the search results and feed the public with the information that favour the highest bidder. It is evident that there political interference in media issues since most of the media firmed are owned by political elites. According to Herman & Chomsky (1994), advertising has played a significant role in the success of the application of the propaganda model, where it is a form of revenue generation. The use of online advertising or rather social media, has made it difficult to differentiate between news and advertising content. Similar to the traditional media, the use of the internet and social media usually support diversity where opinions and voices of different people are given equal opportunity to be heard (Fuchs, 2018). However, power significantly determines whose voice will be heard in both modern and traditional media. Those with a huge following, political muscles and resources tend to dominate the news, thus increasing their voice visibility compared to the marginalised voices hence distorting the political public sphere.
The propaganda/fake news tend to result in the questioning of the rules and norms used in journalism to measure the validity of the information. This means that the truth value or principle, which is the foundation of journalism is in question with the public’s blame laying on the journalism industry for the spread of fake news (Waisbord, 2018). The journalist does not have a significant influence on the problem of post-truth since in most cases, they do not falsify reality or mistakenly omit important information but rather primarily rely on those using the information and news. In a broader sense, it means that the link between truth and news is determined by what people do with the information produced by the journalists. Also, the pattern of news production and communication environment is significantly affected by the new technologies. The digital technologies which are multi-dimensional and promote the non-linear flow of information are replacing the traditional flow of information which enabled one-way communication between the journalists and the audiences (Lu & Zhou, 2016).
The hypodermic needle theory used the traditional flow of information and involved linear communication where messages are instilled directly into the mind of the audiences who are passive (Lamb, 2012). This means that theory equalises the people and assume that they all have similar responses to the message. The people believe that media has a significant influence on personal life, and for instance, the parent is worried that their children’s behaviour will be influenced by frequent television watching and playing violent video games. The theory assumes that the media has control of what the audiences’ views or listen to, with the effects realised either immediately or in future. Notably, diverse people will perceive various news and information differently, a sentiment which can be explained using the framing theory.
The framing theory in journalism tend to affect how the news is presented, an aspect that influences the public’s understanding triggering ethical issues, causal logic and the context which may cause ambiguity and confusion (Hayden, 2001). In other words, framing theories show that how the readers receive the information, and how the story is told will significantly determine our judgement on what had transpired the event. Categorically, the concept of framing in journalism can be described as media framing, which is the central idea or the storyline of how the event unfolds. Media framing will involve selecting some aspects in a story that is perceived to be true, making them more salient, thus allowing for moral evaluation, interpretation and recommendation. The individual framing is primarily on how an individual processes information. Arguably, the framing theory shows that an event reported as the news may be perceived in different ways depending on the other people’s standpoints and beliefs.
In conclusion, journalism has significantly changed with the emergence of new media, such as social media. Traditional journalism is founded based on ethical and professional standards, evaluates the reliability of information and upholds neutrality to the audiences. The new media has introduced the concept of interactivity to traditional journalism, thus integrating social media platforms to allow for feedback from readers. Social media has introduced a sense of immediacy which creates an edge for journalism firms. The modern media has increased the spread of fake news and application of the propaganda model, which involve fabricating information for political or economic gains. The hypodermic needle theory was applied in the news communication environment and involved directly ‘putting’ information on the audiences’ minds who are passive. The framing theory explains how people perceive news or information depending on how an event was narrates.
References
Fuchs, C. (2018). Propaganda 2.0: Herman and Chomsky’s Propaganda Model in the Age of the Internet, Big Data and Social Media. In: Pedro-Carañana, J., Broudy, D. and Klaehn, J. (eds.). The Propaganda Model Today: Filtering Perception and Awareness. Pp. 71–92. London: University of Westminster Press. https://doi.org/10.16997/book27.f.
Hayden, C. (2001). Power in Media Frames: Thinking about Strategic Framing and Media System Dependency and the Events of September 11, 2001. Globalmediajournal.com. Retrieved 26 August 2020, from http://www.globalmediajournal.com/open-access/running-head-power-in-media-frames-thinking-about-strategic-framing-and-media-system-dependency-and-the-events-of-september-.pdf.
Herman, E. S. & Chomsky, N. (1994). The Propaganda Model (Chapter 1). Manufacturing Consent: The Political Economy of the Mass Media. London: Vintage.
Lamb, B. (2012). The Hypodermic Needle Theory | Media in Minutes | Episode 1. Youtube.com. Retrieved 26 August 2020, from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qt5MjBlvGcY&feature=emb_title.
Lu, Y., & Zhou, R. (2016). Liquid journalism and journalistic professionalism in the era of social media: A case study of an online outlet’s coverage of the Oriental Star accident. Communication and The Public, 1(4), 471-485. https://doi.org/10.1177/2057047316682259
Schultz, T. (2000). Mass media and the concept of interactivity: an exploratory study of online forums and reader email. Media, Culture & Society, 22(2), 205-221. https://doi.org/10.1177/016344300022002005
Thomas, C. (2013). The development of journalism in the face of social media: A study on social media’s impact on a journalist’s role, method and relationship to the audience. University of Gothenburg Department of Applied Information Technology Gothenburg, Sweden,. Retrieved 26 August 2020, from https://core.ac.uk/download/pdf/16668883.pdf.
Waisbord, S. (2018). Truth is What Happens to News. Journalism Studies, 19(13), 1866-1878. https://doi.org/10.1080/1461670x.2018.1492881