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In the age of the information society, with the development of Web 2.0 and 3.0, there have been radical changes in the ways through which people communicate and obtain news. The lives and capabilities of individuals and institutions have forever been altered. Governments and corporations have had to adapt to the internet in order to foster participation and communication, but it is perhaps the news industries that have seen the most radical transformations associated with the emergence of the net.
Throughout history, the tools used for journalistic production rested in the hands of a select few who had the means and capital to engage in such a process. The ability to gather and report information, to document events through photographs and video footage, and to disseminate the package to a mass audience was only achieved by media industries with professionally educated journalists. All of this has now changed.
As technology evolves at an alarming pace, the capabilities of average citizens continue to escalate as the costs for equipment such as cameras, camcorders, and computers spirals downwards. In the contemporary state of society, just about everyone has access to the tools of production and distribution with which they can disseminate almost any type of information they please to the masses. As a result of Web 2.0, defined by interactive social networking sites such as weblogs, Twitter, Facebook, and MySpace, the exclusivity of information broadcasting that journalists held for so long has diminished. However, there are many implications – both positive and negative – which the internet and what is known as citizen journalism have brought about.
Perhaps the greatest ramification that the internet has had on news and journalism is that corporate and mainstream media have lost their stranglehold on citizens as the only outlet for obtaining daily news and information. The mass media rely heavily on the concepts of framing and agenda setting in order to perpetuate and propagate information which often furthers their interests. Through the selective construction and manipulation of news stories, audiences are told what to think about and from what perspective. Often, relevant parts of a story are omitted or an important event may not be covered in a newscast at all. It has been said that the news shapes the pictures in our heads. With the rise of citizen journalism, we now have the ability to paint our mental canvas with whatever pictures we want.
Citizen journalism can be loosely defined as the ability of an ordinary citizen to collect, report, analyze and disseminate news and information. This provides alternative views to what the mainstream media feeds the public. This has had profound effects not only in democratic societies but in dictatorial, state-media controlled ones too. The barriers to the free flow of information in the public sphere have been knocked down. The model of news from a one-way flow of information has now become a two-way flow. Also, because alternative media is not profit driven, there exists an unprecedented amount of consumer sovereignty and cultural citizenship.
The democratization of the media has brought reason for celebration; but there is reason for concern as well. As the mainstream media has lost control over its tools of the trade, and is no longer the only focal point of societal and political influence, can the online communities of citizen journalists be trusted to provide accurate reporting? Maybe some stories are not written with the rhetoric and professional linguistic styling of some reporters, but we are exposed to news and information which we would never have access to if we relied solely on the mainstream media. For instance, independent media brought the attention of the world to the brutal, dictatorial happenings in Burma and other places throughout the globe where citizens use cell phones to record footage and then disseminate it on the internet. Furthermore, can we actually rely on the mainstream media to provide us with accurate accounts of events – or real events at all?
Jayson Blaire, a once well known and renowned journalist for the New York Times, resigned in 2003 after he was caught and admitted to fabricating and plagiarizing news stories. How about the events leading up to the Iraq war? The spin and packing of political news used to regulate the flow of information is highly unsettling. Embedded journalism, press-releases, and staged press events all function to control the opinion and behaviour of the masses. The Bush administration created fabrications related to weapons of mass destruction in Iraq which were never found, yet resulted in a war that is present to this date. Before the rise of Web 2.0, and what can be called journalism 2.0, society had no control over the flow of information. Now, if you don’t like the press – become the press.
There are many websites that have established themselves as credible, alternative news sources to mainstream, corporate media. A few examples of these are:
Blogs have made mainstream media more accountable. As these alternative news sources now exist, media industries must adapt to the new model of journalism. Most media outlets now provide online versions of their stories where a forum is provided for discussion. The public can give their viewpoints and insight…sort of. These discussion boards are moderated and therefore only acceptable arguments are posted. This illustrates that media industries are trying to appear transparent, but continually strive to control the flow of information.
So as society has been conditioned for so long not to question authority through critical thinking, web and journalism 2.0 has provided us with new tools to break free from this. Without a doubt there exists information on the internet that lacks substance or credibility, but the same goes for traditional media. What is required is a higher level of education and media literacy in order to be able to distinguish between bona fide and debatable information. So remember: If you don’t like the media, become the media.
Perspectives is a blogging series written, researched and compiled by teams of MediaMiser staff from Client Services, Sales, and R&D. This post was contributed by Paul Koziara, Paul Williamson, Stephanie Luedee and Eric Maciejewski.