28 May Journalism and society essay- objectivity and rise of social media and digital era and effects and changes on political jornalism and shaping of modern journalism.- Charlie Scrase

Journalism and society essay- objectivity and rise of social media and digital era and effects and changes on political jornalism and shaping of modern journalism.

 

This essay will focus on political journalism and whether the rapid spread of social media has prompted the new era of “post truth” and what this mean for objectivity. Is it impossible or should journalists perhaps tried even harder to be trusted and objective?

The essay will look at how political journalism was before social media and the digital era. How digital media including social media has changed political journalism, what it is about social media and a digital era of media that is helpful in sharing political news and what the impact of social media and rise of the digital era has contributed to shape modern journalism.

 

Political journalism before the rapid spread of social media and the digital era was a far cry from the digital journalism and digital media age that arrived in the 21^st century. It was focussed on news being reported, but it also operated on different media ethics, with objectivity being central to these media/journalism ethics.

Political journalism pre social media agreed on different codes of ethics which are referred to by Stephen Ward as the ¹“cosy world of journalism ethics” and that in the era pre digital, political journalism under the influence of said journalism ethics specifically objectivity operated in a vastly different way to how it is now.

Calcutt and Hammond put forward in their book, Journalism studies: a critical introduction, as they pause it that the media of ethics of yesteryear which encompasses objective journalism can be ²“inflected in different ways” (Calcutt, Hammond 2011) and that “on the one hand it might be understood as implying that by adhering to the professional norm of objectivity journalists effectively abdicate their judgements.

 

Political journalism was dictated the sense of responsibility on journalists and the pressure put upon by a growing mass commercial press of the era. Stephen Ward, in his book, the invention of journalism ethics, claims that ³“the press came to enjoy a virtual monopoly on the provision news, analysis and advertising to the public” (Ward, 2015) he goes on to examine that the public had ⁴“became passive consumers of information dependant on data provided by a professional class of journalists employed by large companies” (Ward, 2015).

 

According to Stephen Ward, he argues that the rise digital media (including social media) signifies ⁵“one of the great turning points in the history of media and media ethics.” (Ward, 2015)   in essence changing how journalism is viewed, having an impact on how political journalism is not only reported but how it is covered and analysed.

He also argues that ⁶“this new world challenges traditional values and blurs bedrock distinctions between journalism and media, between journalists and non-journalist, and between journalism ethics.” (Ward, 2015).

Ward also goes on to examine how the rise digital media and modern technology has seen the need to redefine the journalism ethics of the pre digital era and that a reformation of these ethics is needed for application to a modern digitally focussed world or as Ward puts it the ⁷“new practices challenge the existing conceptions of journalism ethics.” (Ward, 2015).

With this march towards a reformation of journalism ethics in the face of digital world, Ward also explores that journalism ethics have changed with society, technology and  economic structure of news media and that one trend in particular that is important is ⁸“the emergence of a mixed news media that is interactive.” (Ward, 2015).

Ward explains that there are two reasons for this, the first being that news practitioners use ⁹“many types of technology to create media content” (Ward, 2015)  he cites examples including printed newspapers , blogs , websites and social media like Facebook and twitter.

It is also highlighted by Ward that the rise of digital media sources such as social media have contributed to this new mixed media, but that it is mixed for yet another reason.

This reason is relatively self-explanatory and it is as Ward puts it ¹⁰“the democratization of media” (Ward, 2015) has led to a led the public to have a foothold in journalism but that as a result of the democratization of the media ¹¹“the number of practitioners has increased dramatically in recent years, going far beyond the ranks of professional journalists to include web writers for NGOs, scientists with blogs and citizen journalists.” (Ward, 2015).

The digital media era has raised questions and has changed how news outlets operate and how professional journalists not only use their own sources but rely on the new breed of news practitioners to provide them with additional information making it now more possible for journalists to be objective and allow for more transparency between journalists and a public that has become more active and involved in their news consumption.

A trend of news media being global in the audiences due in part to the rise of digital media is that news media has more of a reach and as Ward explains is ¹²“because they have the technology to gather news information from around the world with incredible speed, and use this to create stories from the global public.” (Ward, 2015).

These two factors have contributed to create the various issues, which motivate journalists and academics to both study, debate and reform journalism ethics to suit a digital landscape.

Social media and the rise of the digital era has had an effect on not only political journalism, but it has also re-shaped how the concept of objectivity in journalism has been viewed.

Recently, the rise of social and the digital era of journalism has led to the spread of ‘fake news’ in political journalism and journalism in general and as such has put the public audience on a significant level of distrust towards the media.

In an interview conducted by Janell Sims of the Shorstein centre with some leading figures in the journalism world including Margaret Sullivan- public editor of the New York times, Jay Rosen, professor of journalism at New York university and Tom Kent, standards editor for associated press, the effects of social media on objectivity in journalism have been as being ¹³“double-edged sword.” (Sims, 2019)

In particular, Sullivan puts forward the argument that social media may have a destructive effect upon a journalist attempting to be objective in a digital world, but that social media can ¹⁴“create opportunity- it’s a way to communicate that we haven’t had before.

Sullivan also goes on to explain that the so called ‘double-edged sword’ that is social media may have led to the spread of some false information, but also argues that it has also paved the way for these inaccuracies to be resolved, she cites the shooting in Newtown, Connecticut as an example of this in practice.

Her final thoughts on the matter are that in principal, social media has effected reporters and that because of that she think that ¹⁵“it makes sense to keep their politics under wraps.” (Sims, 2019). This highlights that social media not only makes political journalism more objective on the topic.

In essence this has made journalists less likely to espouse their personal political beliefs in order to report news without bias, whilst also providing key information, whilst preventing themselves alienating the general public audience.

However in the same way that social media looks to help journalists, it is also proving to be a problem, as it continues to be a concerning issue for the general public audience, as found by a Cision study, that found that 22% of people who took part in the survey said that social media- by extension social networks and influencers have bypassed traditional media.

This has in effect created a fracture between the news reported by journalists and that of bloggers and social media presences, which has limited in a sense the way in which journalists can strive to be objective. not only for political journalism, but across reporting on news stories entirely.

As a whole, public distrust in the media continues to be an issue in journalism with particular relevance to political journalism and that social media has not helped, as a global study carried out found that 20% of the UK population now avoid news entirely, according to Guardian journalist, James Ball.

He finds that this leaves people open to the express possibility of being ¹⁶“vulnerable to polarising and extremist views from other media sources” (Ball, 2018).

In saying this Ball has clearly referenced social media as another media source, which might seek to cause destruction. It is in this that this fracture has contributed to a new definition of what can be viewed as ‘post truth’ in this new digital era we live in.

The rise of social media and the digital era has raised many questions for journalists the world over.

It remains to be seen how the old news media can be synthesised together with the emergence of digital media to create a place where journalists can at least try to remain objective or at the very least be trusted to do so, not only with political journalism but with journalism as a whole.

 

Bibliography

• 1- Ward, S. J. A (2015), the invention of Journalism ethics, 2^nd edition, and part 3: from pre-digital to digital ethics, pg. 342. McGill university press.
• 2- Calcutt and Hammond (2011), Journalism studies: A critical introduction, chapter 3: the rise and fall of objectivity, pg. 102.
• 3- Ward, S. J. A (2015), the invention of Journalism ethics, part 3: from pre-digital to digital ethics, 2^nd edition, pg. 345. McGill university press.
• 4- Ward, S. J. A (2015), the invention of Journalism ethics, 2^nd edition, and part 3: from pre-digital to digital ethics, pg. 345. McGill university press.
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• 8- Ward, S J A (2015), the invention of Journalism ethics, 2^nd edition, and part 3: from pre-digital to digital ethics, pg. 346. McGill university press.
• 9- Ward, S (2015), the invention of Journalism ethics, 2^nd edition, and part 3: from pre-digital to digital ethics, pg. 346. McGill university press.
• 10- Ward, S (2015), the invention of Journalism ethics, 2^nd edition, and part 3: from pre-digital to digital ethics, pg. 346. McGill university press.
• 11- Ward, S (2015), the invention of Journalism ethics, 2^nd edition, and part 3: from pre-digital to digital ethics, pg. 346. McGill university press.
• 12-Ward, S (2015), the invention of Journalism ethics, 2^nd edition, and part 3: from pre-digital to digital ethics, pg. 346. McGill university press.
• 13- Simms, J. Shorstein Centre (2019), NYT editor see social media as a double edged sword that is changing objective journalism. Available from: https://shorensteincenter.org/speaker-series-with-margaret-sullivan/ [ accessed 24^th May 2019]
• 14- Simms, J. Shorstein Centre (2019), NYT editor see social media as a double edged sword that is changing objective journalism. Available from: https://shorensteincenter.org/speaker-series-with-margaret-sullivan/ [ accessed 24^th May 2019]
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•  16- Ball, J. (2018), Distrust of social media is dragging traditional journalism down, The Guardian, 22 Available from: https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2018/jan/22/distrust-social-media-traditional-journalism-fake-news [accessed 27th May 2019)