Essay

Question: Increasingly mobile devices are an aid to the gathering and reporting of information, both by professional journalists and “citizen journalists”. Outline the advantages and disadvantages of this sort of newsgathering. How might it impact on journalistic practices and news values and ethics?

Journalism news values and ethics are a fundamental part of newsgathering. With the development of mobile phones, it has become much easier for journalists and citizens to obtain newsworthy information. However, due to the increase popularity of the internet and many applications a mobile phone now has, information can be fabricated, which is deemed unethical. Will journalist news values and ethics be pushed aside in favour of newsworthy items?

In this essay I will be defining what citizen journalism is, I will be outlining journalism news values and ethics and discussing the advantages and disadvantages of citizen journalists. Lastly I will be discussing how this type of newsgathering can impact on journalistic news values and ethics.

Bainbridge, Goc and Tynan (2008, p.33) define citizen journalists as “a member of the public who acts in the role of a journalist gathering news and new information (including images) that are communicated to an audience.” This also refers to the numerous amounts of bloggers, people who use social networking sites, and ultimately those who spread news through the World Wide Web or the mobile phone.

It is no wonder that society is getting their daily fix from the internet and voicing their own views on today’s news. Access to the internet is immediate and free. With news breaking stories the internet gives people the chance to publish or voice their opinions as soon as it breaks, instead of waiting for it to be published for the morning paper or late news. Critics are worried that this could potentially ruin mainstream media (Hough, 2008). But can stories/images published by “citizen journalists” be trusted?

The main argument of “citizen journalists” is that they do not know the code of ethics that goes alongside journalism.

“There is some controversy over the term citizen journalism, because many professional journalists believe that only a trained journalist can understand the rigors and ethics involved in reporting the news.” (Glaser, 2006).

If this is so, then why do professionals use “citizen journalists” images or videos? It is not up to the citizen to know every aspect of journalism. It is the professional journalists’ job to check and re-check the validity of their sources.

The first code of ethics introduced to Australia was in 1944 by the Australian Journalists Association and was later reviewed/revised up until 1996 (Bainbridge et al., 2008, p. 303). Ethics are what distinguish “traditional journalists” from “citizen journalists” and are an essential part of journalistic practices. Ethics are “the rules of conduct recognized in respect to a particular class of human actions or a particular group, culture, etc.” (Dictionary.com, 2009). They are what “traditional journalists” learn, practice and preach. Today these codes of ethics are:

“1. Report and interpret honestly.

2. Do not place unnecessary emphasis on personal characteristics.

3. Aim to attribute information to its source.

4. Do not allow personal interest, or any belief, commitment, payment, gift or benefit, to undermine your accuracy, fairness or independence.

5. Disclose conflicts of interest that affect, or could be seen to affect, the accuracy, fairness or independence of your journalism. Do not improperly use a journalistic position for personal gain.

6. Do not allow advertising or other commercial considerations to undermine accuracy, fairness or independence.

7. Do your utmost to ensure disclosure of any direct or indirect payment made for interviews, pictures, information or stories.

8. Use fair, responsible and honest means to obtain material.

9. Present pictures and sound, which are true and accurate.

10. Do not plagiarise.

11. Respect private grief and personal privacy.

12. Do your utmost to achieve fair correction of errors.”

(Australian News Commentary, 2010).

Professional journalists need to adapt to the growing number of “citizen journalists”, otherwise the code of ethics will change and professional journalists will spend most of their time trying to convince the public of the validity of the story.

However, we know that journalists do not always abide by the code of ethics. How many celebrities have sued magazines or newspapers for publishing false stories? In order for (some), journalists to persuade the public to read their work, they intentionally use exaggeration and sensationalism to create headline news. (Bainbridge et al., 2008, p. 299) So if journalists do not always abide by their own rules than why is there so much controversy surrounding “citizen journalists”?

There are many examples of citizen journalism; with the amount of people who use blog/social networking sites, you could even argue that we are all citizen journalists, even “traditional” journalists are “citizens”(Glaser, 2006). Citizens take most of the images and videos of real life crises.

This is because journalists can’t access real life disasters on time or at all due to the danger. (Responsible Citizen, 2010). Therefore an advantage of citizen journalists is the fact they are there before the story breaks and can report what has happened. Due to the new digital age, most citizens carry mobile phones (which have cameras, video etc) or digital cameras, which can capture whatever is happening at the time. Take for example the 2005 London Bombing or the Boxing Day Tsunami.

The pictures sprawled across newspapers and television, were taken by citizen journalists, without them no reporter could have captured what was happening as it was too dangerous. Sometimes we rely on “citizen journalists” who are there to capture these events when professionals are not around.

Another advantage of citizen journalism is that it allows free speech. Most news stories have to be careful with what is said and normally hold back on what they really want to say. (Sanders, 2003, p.70) With blogging and other websites, it allows society to say what they want about whatever they want. Some argue that blogging gives a different view, a more personal view, on the way news are reported ‘officially’. “…journalistic observers situate the democratic significance of citizen-produced weblogs in their capacity for independent, original news reporting.”(Haas, 2007, p.144) A known example is the weblog Where is Riad? which was created by Iraqi architect, Salam Pax and reported what he and relatives witnessed. (Haas, 2007, p.145)

However, there are some disadvantages. Due to mobile phone quality; images, audio and video can be distorted, which can lead to questions being raised on the validity of the source. Some argue that the arrival of the digital camera “has created new ethical dilemmas about photographic manipulation”. (Bainbridge et al., 2008, p. 32) With photoshop and all the publishing programs now available online, it is now possible for most amateurs to purposely fabricate a story or image and get it published using some sort of medium (Bainbridge et al., 2008, p. 32). The outcome of these type of stories raise all types of ethical issues (such as damaging reports), and can put the “traditional journalist” under fire, potentially ruining their relationship with the public. With more stories being fabricated, society will deem journalists as untrustworthy and loose respect for them. Not only does it damage the reputation of the journalist it can potentially damage the profession of journalism as a whole.

This could also be said about blogs and other internet sites. We may be able to voice our opinions on them, but by doing so can create serious consequences and the law may be brought in. It is rarely known that people can be sued for defamation for publishing certain views or stories with their blog or site being used as evidence.

The subject of citizen journalists and using mobile phones for newsgathering is always going to have split views. It is both an advantage and disadvantage. If traditional journalists are breaking the rules and distorting news stories, then what does it matter if citizen journalists do not have the correct ‘tools’ for the job? Although citizen journalists will never fully ‘take-over’ the role of a professional journalist, I think they play a big part in today’s society and will play a huge role in the future. A picture always speaks louder than words, and because a citizen journalist will always be in the right place at the right time, they will always hold that advantage over the professional journalist. The only thing for the professional to do is to make sure all sources are of a high validity before publishing.

Bibliography

Australian News Commentary. (2010). Retrieved October 21, 2010, from http://www.australian-news.com.au/codethics.htm

Bainbridge, J., Goc, N., & Tynan, L. (2008). Media & Journalism. South Melbourne, Victoria: Oxford University Press.

Responsible Citizen. (2010). Retrieved October 21, 2010, from http://www.responsiblecitizen.co.uk/citizenship-journalism.html

Dictionary.com. (2009). Retrieved October 21, 2010, from http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/ethics

Glaser, M. (2006). Mediashift: Your guide to the digital media revolution. Retrieved October 21, 2010, from http://www.pbs.org/mediashift/2006/09/your-guide-to-citizen-journalism270.html

Haas, T. (2007). The Pursuit of Public Journalism: Theory, Practice and Criticism. New York: Taylor and Francis Group.

Hough, L. (2008). Citizen Journalism: Ally or Rival?. Retrieved October 21, 2010, from http://loishough.blogspot.com/2008/05/citizen-journalism-ally-or-rival.html

Sanders, K. (2003). Ethics and Journalism. SAGE publications Ltd.

O Balls!

Whoops just came across this little doozy that I forgot to do...

1.What is creative commons and how could this licensing framework be relevant to your own experience at university?

Creative Commons is a non-for-profit organisation that dedicate themselves to make it easier for people "to share and build upon the works of others, consistent with the rules of copyright."

They also provide free licences and other creative tools which allows creators to be more flexible with their work.

Source from here

2. Find 3 examples of work created by creative commons and embed them in your blog.

Well I'm not sure if this would count at answering the questions but here are 3 well known websites that use CC.

One of the first to use CC.

Nine Inch Nails frontman Trent Reznor release Grammy nominated Ghost I-IV under a CC Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike license.

And good ol' Wiki recently "migrated its licensin structure from the GNU Free Documentation License to a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike license.

Sourced from here

3. Find an academic article which discusses creative commons using a database or online journal. Provide a link to and a summary of the article.

4.Have a look at Portable Apps (a pc based application)- provide a brief description of what is it and how you think this is useful.

Portable Apps is a free, open source software that is downloaded on to a portable device (such as an usb). It allows you to take your favourite applications, (such as a web browser, office suite, antivirus, audio player, sudoku game and many more) with you. It would be useful for us uni students who do not want to take our laptops with us but rely on public computers.

Source from here

Summary

Well I'm going to put it out there... I am not, nor will I ever be one of them computer type people. My computer skills go as far as typing essays and searching the internet.

This course has opened me up to a new world of terms and definitions that I will never fully understand and will probably immediately forget. A course that was not for me. Some tasks were fun, some boring and others irrelevant.

I found tutorials enjoyable but sometimes felt that they were unorganised due to the swapping of tutors and the tutesparks and lecture notes being posted up late. I enjoyed the tute discussions and listening to what people had to say on certain topics, for example who has control over what you put up on FaceyB.

One major problem I had with the course was the culture jamming task. Although I said I would do it, the most I actually did was post the news article on my blog. Although it is fun to make up a completely false story, I find it ethically wrong and somewhat illegal to fabricate a story which could potentially ruin a future career, that being mine or the person we wrote about.

I sometimes got a little bit confused as to what we actually needed to post on our blog and what outside things we could have posted to make it more interesting. Also some of the tasks were a bit vague and I wasn't sure with some questions whether it was my opinion or whether I had to research things. I think it needed to have a bit more structure and the tasks that we had to do for it could have been a bit more enjoyable. However, the blog is a great idea. I really enjoyed keeping a blog and will probably keep one in the future.

As a hole, I think the course needed to be a bit more organised and have a better structure. I think with a little bit more structure and organisation will help improve the course.

What To Choose?

Ok, so for this week we had to choose what essay topic we were going to do and why. I've decided to do question 6.

6. Increasingly mobile devices are an aid to the gathering and reporting of information, both by professional journalists and "citizen journalists". Outline the advantages and disadvantages of this sort of news gathering. How might it impact on journalistic practices and news values and ethics?

Personally, I think it has both advantages and disadvantages. Firstly, a mobile device is a quick and easy way of gathering news and quite handy if something happens unexpectedly. However, some journalists may use their mobiles to fabricate information, so therefore it is untrustworthy and can would be ethically wrong if used in such a way. It would be interesting to research this matter further and that is why I chose this topic. I think I would begin researching this by first finding a book that states journalists ethics etc. and defining what citizen journalists are (although I'm pretty sure of what they are) and then going from there.

To Infinity and Beyond!...Or Not

So back to the task for this week. I chose the topic Corporate Control Over Society.

Corporate Control Over Society: Cyberpunk almost always has an ever powerful controlling entity that directs society. Most often this is represented as a corporation. Some times its simply an ever present singular government. A common theme for corporate control involves a futuristic dystopia, where the last traces of high civilization exist only in an enclosed and protected city, where civil liberties are removed under the guise of protecting humanity.

I took this bit from the tutespark blog which was plagerised from here

Ok so I'm not sure if I have done this right, (I'm not even sure if I'm anywhere near the right track)but the main thing is I tried. I tried. Here's my article.

UK government aims for paperless Hybrid society within four years

UK prime minister Gordon Brown has announced plans to create a paperless hybrid society by delivering job centre, passport, driving licence and benefit administration flying human cross-breads online to residents of Britain within the next four years.

Outlining his vision of a 'Digital New Britain' in a speech earlier this week, Brown revealed plans for MyGov God– a personalised web portal flying creature for each UK citizen that would give them access to a raft of direct government services online.

According to the Prime Minister, the government could save £900m (A$1.47bn) a year simply by equipping UK residents who don't have high-speed internet access with broadband with hybrid creatures that could have a direct link with the government. Brown said: "We know that for every transaction with a public service that is done online with one of our hybrids rather than over the telephone we can save around £3.30 in administration and staffing costs. 
"And using them (the hybrids) internet rather than filling in paper forms or writing letters can typically save £12 each time."
However, the British Printing Pro Human Industries Federation (BPHIF) has warned that a paperless hybrid state could, also turn out to be a "faceless one" if the government's plans go ahead.

 Andrew Brown, corporate affairs director at the BPHIF, said: "Unless they (the hybrids) technology is are willing to obey their owner well thought through, people will be disinclined to use it and will resent government efforts to force them to.

"However, at least the government has admitted that its aim is to save money through this initiative, rather than giving us some greenwash about saving the planet. So hopefully we don’t have to remind them that paper comes from a renewable source. So hopefully nothing will happen with a mixed society.”

Article from here and made up bits taken from this story here

Which One Bligh, Public or Private?

The new 'public' hospital being built in Southport is NOT going to be a public hospital.

The new hospital will be private. Anna Bligh has been hiding the truth about this private hospital for a long time. She knew it would cause much controversy with many Queenslander's, especially Gold Coaster's.

The work on the new hospital is progressing with 570,000 working hours completed to date resulting in the completion of the basement to the main building and the commencement of the Lower Ground level. Road infrastructure upgrades are well underway including the construction of the new internal road network within the site.

main structure of the project is beginning to grow out of the ground and will grace the parkland skyline in the not too distant future. Even all the workers at the hospital were under the impression that this was a public hospital.

Some builders and other tradesman have left the job, as they don't want to be involved with Anna Bligh's lies.

"Anna Bligh is clearly a liar and blackmailer, this hospital should be public and not private. Obviously she knows that, that's why she covered the truth," said Bill Smart, a plumber working at the construction site.

"Parking charges have formed part of the negotiations with Queensland Health endeavoring to keep the cost to the public to a minimum,

negotiations are also underway for an operator of the adjoining private hospital," said Anna Bligh two weeks ago.

Anna Bligh continued "the Gold Coast Hospital will assist the general public with their needs, and in particular the growing area of Southport."

Southport residents are furious with Anna Bligh's scandal and want something to be done about it.

"I still can't believe this, we were in need of this public hospital. Most of the people in this area cannot afford private health insurance, Anna Bligh knows this too. We are very disappointed", said Jayne Porter, a local in Southport.

Anna Bligh thought that because we already had a public hospital in Southport, it would be pointless building another one. She made sure that she and the people who worked for her kept their mouths closed. Therefore, the drama wouldn't be as bad once the hospital was eventually built.

Consequently, Anna Bligh and her publicists did not want to comment on the matter.

Written by, Jessica Barker and Bronwen Phillips

Cyber-Screwed

For our task this week we have to combine a news article with a cyberpunk fiction story, that is about the topic we have chosen from a list. I chose Corporate Control Over Society.

Before ever doing this course and if I had ever heard of the word "cyberpunk", I would have guessed the term would have meant some sort of cross between Ashton Kutcher's tv show, Punked and the internet. So being "punked" online. (Don't ask me how.) I have read and re-read many definitions of Cyberpunk and I'm afraid to say I still do not get it! I think I am one of those people that never will. But, I think it is a mixed genre, which expresses ideas of humanity and technology, (erm) combining in the future. (I am shocked there is one but, Thanks cyberwiki).

Sourced from here

As for the lecture, well I have no hope! I grasped the term of Virtual Reality as I have heard this before. But Virtual Rationality?? Nope, never. I think I may need to re-read the notes to get some sort of inkling of what that was about. The virtual language was interesting. Some of the key concepts used, well, I would have never have thought they were part of the virtual language.