Session 1 is about trust and the media. A pre-conference poll was conducted on trust and these are the results. The panelists are discussing issues of trust, transparency, MSM vs. Citizen Journalism etc.
I have some fundamental issues with the way this issue is being taken. One of the panelists just made a statement about how news and opinion are different. So let’s say I take three newspapers published from the same city and rip out the edit pages – is the content then the same. Even deciding that some report goes on page 3 instead of page 7 is an opinion. Any kind of discretion immediately introduces bias. Bias by itself is not a good or bad thing. But it’s better to be aware that there is nothing like objectivity in the first place.
Mainsteam Media (MSM) and Citizen Journalism are not at loggerheads in many countries. They can help validate each other, and provide alternate streams of information. Take for instance in Nepal where Kantipur FM cause was supported by Citizen Journalists. Trust anyway is a strange word. How do you define trust? Do you trust a report that comes across as genuine, or do you trust the source. Do you trust a report because of where it comes from or because of what it says? Do you continue to trust the source even if your own experience contradicts the content in a report? What do you mean by the term “fact”?
Citizen Journalism is not about blogs alone. Small FM stations, college radios, that newsletter typed out on cheap print paper, posters – they’ve always existed. Citizen Journalism is not new. In fact, it probably pre-dates MSM. It’s just that it’s never been so easy to be a Citizen Journalist. It’s never been this cheap. Despite the fact that the digital divide does exist, more people have access to “creating news” than ever before. The volume produced by Citizen Journalism cannot be ignored anymore. (And please, blogs are NOT the only form of Citizen Journalism. Citizen Jouralism blogs are a subset of all blogs.)
First of all – please don’t think in terms of “people” and “media”. People ARE the medium.
