Journalist's first obligation
is to tell the truth. Its first loyalty is to the citizens. Its essence is
discipline of verification. Its practitioners must maintain an independence
from those they cover. Journalism must serve as an independent monitor of
power. It must provide a forum for public criticism and debate. It must strive
to make the news significant, interesting, and relevant. It must keep the news
comprehensive and proportional. Trust and credibility are the foundations of
journalism, and the integrity of the journalist is its cornerstone. However,
with the emergence and deployment of new media, the journalism profession has
faced many challenges. These include lack of objectivity, credibility,
emergence of vendetta and citizen journalism, lack of accountability due to the
use if pseudonyms and lack of originality through plagiarism of news stories. Fabrication
of information has also become very common.
Chari
(2009), notes that the internet has transformed the practices of journalism
worldwide. The manner in which news is gathered and disseminated has changed
drastically. Journalists no longer adhere to the journalistic ethics and values
they are supposed to follow. Gordon & Kittros (1999) define media ethics as
a ‘field that deals with nearly an endless array of gray areas where issues and
appropriate courses of action are not clearly demarcated. Although the
emergence of new media has improved journalism in a number of ways, they have
been the root of all unethical reporting. One should support Lasica (1997)’s
argument that technology does not make ethics old fashioned hence, they should
be followed.
New
media has resulted in lack of objectivity that is the dissemination of
unverified facts to the public. This has resulted in the public being given
false information or stories with little truth. Fabrication has increased since
the introduction of new media in Zimbabwe. Chari (2009) argues that the eye of
the reporter is now fixed on scooping, rather than ensuring that facts are
correct. This clearly shows that ICTs have brought unethical values into play
and basic journalistic values have been eroded. Lack of objectivity online can
also be linked to ownership structures. Online media still adheres to the owner
or investor’s interests. For example, zimpapers online is biased towards the
ruling party, ZANU-PF, like its print media. The stories published online, lack
objectivity- they are one sided (unbalanced) and polarised.
Bradley
(2001) argues that most of the stories online lack credibility is because of the
obsession of speed. Most journalists or online papers want to be the first ones
to update news or events. News updates are often posted as they happen, which
allows early access to information at the expense of the accuracy of the
content, Arrant (2000). They take less time checking their stories, thereby
undermining journalism. There is need to follow ethical guidelines in new
media.
The
internet in Zimbabwe is now practising vendetta journalism. Kasoma (1996:99)
defines it as journalism that is filled with hatred and dislike against certain
people. Abusive language is used, there is selective use of facts that paint a
bad picture and the person attacked is not approached for comment. This kind of
journalism has effects on the personal life of an individual and that is,
defamation of character, financial and social ruin.
Anonymity
is accepted more readily online than in mainstream news media. Codes of
mainstream media ethics caution journalists to use anonymous sources sparingly.
The codes warn journalists that people may use anonymity to take unfair or
untrue “photo shots” at other people, for self-interest reasons, John (2012).
Anonymity is praised as allowing freedom of speech and sometimes helping to
expose wrong doing. However, it is a challenge to basic journalistic values in
that it encourages irresponsible and harmful comments. The use of pseudonyms
has also been a major challenge brought by the new media. The use of anonymity
on its own is not a challenge since citizens would want to discuss sensitive
issues without being identified. It has become a challenge in that news stories
now lack accountability. Journalists are now not accountable to the public as
the hide behind fake identities. Pseudonyms have also brought fabrication as a
challenge where media practitioners cook up new stories and disseminate them to
the public.
Lack
of originality has risen due to plagiarism of information. Information gotten
from other articles whether online or print has not been clearly or properly
attributed. Media practitioners now take other people’s work and write it as
their own without acknowledging the source of that information. Therefore, this
plagiarism has caused lack of originality in news stories. Creativity and
uniqueness of news stories has been killed as the information which is being
disseminated is plagiarised from the internet or print.
ICTs
have caused a number of ethical and professional journalism dilemmas on journalism
profession. There has been lack of objectivity and credibility in online
publications. Journalists have also had an obsession of wanting to be the first
to disseminate information without checking the facts. From this, one can
clearly see that some of the old ethical challenges are being enforced by the
new media. Vendetta journalism also emerged after the introduction of ICTs in
Zimbabwe also the use of pseudonyms has become a huge challenge on basic
journalistic values.
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