Week 12: Last post!

This post is my last entry for this Journalism module! All I can say is that I did learn quite a bit from the course as I think having presentations on a weekly basis ensures that we turn up for classes and the presentations did allow us to learn quite a bit from our coursemates. Also, it is a good idea to have a seminar report as it refreshes what we have learnt. Furthermore, since our course is a Communications course, I believe this journalism course is useful to us in some ways when we enter the working life. The end of this course also marks the end of my school journey, I guess it applies to many of my other coursemates as well. I have mixed emotions as I definitely want to get over and done with school but there is this fear there is instilled within me as I start to worry if I am able to find a job, a job that I have a passion for.

 

Xoxo,

Jayne

Week 11: Reflection

Everyone is working on their assignments! 5 assignments before school ends. As for the feature assignment, it is indeed quite worrying, especially when interviewees do not reply after agreeing to the interview. I am getting flustered as the days go by as time is running out. I guess this is a good lesson for us as no matter what we do, we should always plan beforehand and have a backup so as to rely on it when things crop up at the most unexpected moment. I guess i have to make do with what i have and continue to work on other assignments at the same time.

Really cannot wait for these 2 weeks to pass!

Week 10: Reflection

Now that everyone finished presenting, we are finally left with one assignment for this module! I guess everyone did their best for their presentation and seminar report. After weeks of hard work, we are finally reaching the finishing line! Together with other assignments, we are required to do a feature article for our last assignment. I had a hard time deciding which topic to focus on as all topics seemed similar yet interesting to me. Another worry is to find experts to give their opinions on the topic that we are writing on. After much consideration, I finally narrowed down to 2 topics, which are Privacy and Ethics. I guess it will be slightly easier for me to write a feature article about ethics as I feel that I am somehow more interested in finding out more about the difficulties that a journalists have to go through, such as to what extent will journalists seek to obtain truth, compete for information etceteras. I thought of interviewing a journalist from Singapore Press Holdings, perhaps a lawyer and a lecturer who teaches about ethics and publishing. Now that I know who I want to interview and what my angle is, I have to get started with the questions and send it to my interviewees as i understand that waiting for their replies can be a chore and a dreadful thing. With such a tight schedule, I should really get started…

 

 

 

Work hard everyone!

xoxo,

Jayne

Week 9: Moral Minefields: Legal and Ethical Dilemma

This week’s discussion is about points of view from celebrities and journalists. I think journalists do find it difficult to decide if it is their role to publish material that in in the public’s interest or material that is interesting to the public. I totallty agree that journalists have the right to snap photos in public areas as it their duty to look for news that are worth taking. However, like what Klara shared in class, i think the journalists in Hong Kong are overboard as they take photos of celebrities even in their bathroom and make assumptions with cynic remarks. Celebrities are only human, I do understand that it is normal that people tend to be attracted to news about them and therefore their privacy may be invaded indirectly. However, by taking photos of celebrities even in their homes is ridiculous.  Journalists go all out to obtain information about celebrities private lives due to money and promotion in Hong Kong. As Klara shared about the Check-List of the journalists in hong Kong, the journalists are not allowed to enter a private home but allowed to stand at a private area and zoom into people’ house to take photos. I think that there should be a law which states that no matter what the journalists do, they are not able to take photos of celebrities in private at all. Overall, I think that Klara gave a good case study to showcase how unethical journalists in Hong Kong can be in order to write a piece of news.

I feel that as compared to Hong kong, the celebrities in Singapore are relatively safe as the journalists in Hong Kong do not care about the rights and privacy of an individual so long as they can get what they want. Looking at the gossip magazines in Hong Kong, I am amazed by the journalists’ ability. It is actually important for journalists to know that there are different approaches to obtaining news (Keebie 2009). One should not be too cynical as although profits are at the root of all journalism, individual rights and privacy still exist. I guess every country should have a fixed set of rules for journalists to follow and as for the case of Hong Kong, the check-list for journalists may be too vague and not strict enough.

 

All in all, it still boils down to the personality of every individual. Journalists may have different thinkings or are taught differently. However, I feel that in the field of journalism, it is important for journalists to put themselves into the shoes of victims, perhaps only by doing so, they are able to know their limits and draw the boundary, this seeks as a reminder to our daily  lives as well.

 

References

Keeble, R 2009, Ethics for journalists, Taylor & Francis, London.

Week 8: Truth & Objectivity

Nivi shared a good idea about how the same term can mean differently to different people. Firstly, although China is termed as a democratic country, the democracy found in the country cannot be compared to United States. The main role of journalist should be to interpret reality as honestly as possible (Keshvani & Tickle 2001). This clearly showed the difference in perspectives. Religious convictions may hinder factual reporting, Philosophical convictions, people have different sets of beliefs, different sets of principles. Therefore, there is a need to check these believes beforehand. Personal integrity is also important as some journalists may fabricate quotes and make up their own story. The example of the journalist Stephen Glass. He created websites, messages and phone numbers in order to ensure that his story gets published and that people believe. It is quite sad that he needs to resort to such methods in order to earn the love and respect of his readers. Furthermore, he claimed that he hated himself for doing so but had to keep on doing that once he started fabricating. Like Nivi shared in class, I also feel that it is more important to use the same amount of time to go find a newsworthy story to write about, it all boils down to the passion the journalist has. But once again,the factors that affect truth and objectivity include time constraint. Technology also allows information to be transmitted faster than traditional journalists and this can be deemed as a pressure to start fast.

Calcy shared about the 3 stages of reporting, mainly reactive reporting, analytical reporting and reflective reporting. There are different forms of reporting. It is important as people are curious to know about the facts about a story. However,itis difficult for journalists to obtain all the facts and therefore, it is difficult to get a complete version of the story. A good comparison of formal and gossip news. I like how she showed the different levels of reporting by using the case of maid’s body found in the water tank.

I personally feel that it should be a journalist’s priority to report only the truth and to report objectively (Wright 1994). The truth can be defined as facts while  objectivity is to analyze without taking into consideration personal emotions etc.  However, I also understand that there are various factors that affect how journalists report as well. Other than time constraints, it is important to understand that journalists are also human beings and it is difficult to report on news objectively. Emotions can hinder one’s objectivity as we tend to be biased when we talk about stuff, this may also affect the way journalists report. Like the General elections in Singapore for an example, we all realized that more news about the ruling party are being reported while news about the opposition can only be found on the internet. With the relations the Government has with various news outlets, it is only normal that the journalists report more about the ruling party.

To conclude, it important for journalists to transform the pressure that they face to a strength. I totally agree that truth is hard but it is still possible for one to retain his/her integrity if they try hard enough and stick to their own principles.

References

Keshvani, N & Tickle, S 2001, ‘Online news: the changing digital mediascape’, Journal of Australian Studies, vol. 25, no. 70, pp. 99-105.

Wright, C 1994, Truth and objectivity, Harvard University Press, London.

Week 7: Privacy

Public is attracted to sensationalized news, tend to read bad news rather than boring good news. Appreciates the quickest way of obtaining news. Talked about journalism ethics. For instance, the treatment of public figures may differ from the treatment of private individuals.  True that citizens do not have total access to all information. Most newsrooms have a policy against naming children and youth arrested. I feel that this is appropriate as it protects the identity of victims and this allows them to move on in future and that people who do know them personally will not judge them instantly. The video on the assault shows an extreme case of a journalists was beaten up so badly after reporting and intruding into a person’s privacy. Shasi shared on the extent as to how much the journalist should reveal as it is the public’s right to know about things that are happening. However, she also brought up the point that by doing so, an individual’s right is compromised. I strongly agree to the fact that there are some fundamental principles of journalism and the principles have to be strictly adhered to. One of the points stated was to report the truth in an objective way. I think the exceptions listed are good as one of the point was as long as the greater good outweighs the potential harm, an individual’s privacy can be intruded. It is indeed difficult for journalists to judge and see if the news is worth publishing. As for the piece of news article that Shasi shared, the horrific accident had cause the mother of the toddler to live in guilt for the rest of her life and she had lost her privacy as photos, name of her were revealed. Some people might feel that there wasn’t a need for journalists to reveal particulars about the mother but however, from a commercial point of view, people are attracted to reading newspapers that reveal more than it should. The more journalists reveal, the more people will buy the newspapers and this in turn generates revenue for the news outlet.

Politicians, celebrities and other famous people should already know that since they have a reputation in the society, they have an image to maintain and that people who know that are constantly watching them (Drake 2007). Naturally, these people ought to know that they do not have as much rights to privacy as compared to normal people. Only for certain cases that involve killing, raping and grave mistakes that a normal individual’s right would be affected. I feel that one way we can draw the line to see how much we can reveal by seeing if the person deserves the treatment.

Thats why people will turn to other ways to obtain news. Internet is more liberal as compared to newspapers (Althaus & Tewksbury 2000). All in all, it really depends on the journalist’s ethics but most of the time, ethics is compromised due to the attractiveness of readership that leads to profit.

 

References

Althaus, SL & Tewksbury, D 2000, ‘Patterns of Internet and traditional news media use in a networked community’, Political Communication, vol. 17, no. 1, pp. 21-45.

Drake, P 2007, ‘Who Owns Celebrity? Privacy, Publicity, and the Legal Regulation of Celebrity Images’, Stardom and celebrity: a reader, p. 219-229.

Week 6: We’re all a Twitter!

Vanessa & Rosalind’s presentation was on Social Media. I find that the way they compare the advantages and disadvantages of Social media and local media was very clear and precise. Furthermore, I really enjoyed watching the video that Rosalind showed, regarding the nuclear situation in Japan. I find that its a very good way to showcase how capable people are when it comes to using social media. Furthermore, other than just stating the good and bad points of both local and social media, Vanessa showed the news of the flood from the tv and from the newspaper. I feel that its a way of showing us the different between different means of publishing. Overall, it was quite an interesting presentation and interactive discussion.

Once again, technology has advanced and brought about a new way of presenting news. This time, it is through a new form known as social media. According to research, about 63% of teens go online daily (Lenhart 2007). This is significantly quite a large number of young people. Undeniable, the social media has provided a lot of benefits. Some benefits include the fast speed, the immediacy as stated during presentation, the preference to choose the topic one would like to read etceteras. However, with the accessibility of the social media, some people may find it difficult to obtain highly credible and accurate news (Agichtein 2008). Therefore, who is present to ensure that the news that they have received are true?

Newspapers, on the other hand, are produced by news organizations. Although it is a known fact that news organizations are biased, the information that are published has to be facts. The only down side of reading the newspapers is that the information may be sensationalized or twisted to side a party.

Ultimately, it all depends on one’s preference to obtain news. Some people may sill prefer to read local newspapers as they like to touch the physical papers when they read (Fisher 2004). Also, some may not have the time and therefore they obtain news by listening to radio stations in the morning when they are on the way to work. There is also group of people who prefer seeing images and they absorb the best when they are exposed to engaging sights and sounds from the television. It is really subjective and its dependent on one’s preference. In the long run, I personally feel that none of the mediums will disappear as different means of obtaining news attract different groups of people. It may be a good thing after all, as different ways of producing news also lead to a check and balance system and people can always verify the news that they have read.

 

References

Agichtein, E, Castillo, C, Donato, D, Gionis, A & Mishne, G 2008, Finding high-quality content in social media, ACM.

Fisher, TH 2004, ‘What we touch, touches us: Materials, affects, and affordances’, Design Issues, vol. 20, no. 4, pp. 20-31.

Lenhart, A, Madden, M, Smith, A & Macgill, A 2007, ‘Teens and social media: An overview’, Pew Internet and American Life Project). Washington, DC.

 

Week 5: Globalization VS Localization

Anjana and Huda shared about the consequences of Freedom of Speech due to Globalization. I feel that yes, it is indeed true that Singapore’s media system is gradually opening up due to the influence of other international media outlets. Although it is still quite dangerous to comment on sensitive issues about politics in Singapore, we can actually see that websites such as http://mrbrown.com/ exist and he has been blogging about the ruling party openly for several years. I think Huda did a good comparison on The Straits Times and The Newpaper as she pointed out the fact that since both pieces of news are from the same news organization, it is natural that the news that are published are somewhat similar to each other to maintain the credibility of the news organization. Overall, I feel that the presentation focused more on Globalization as compared to Localization.

Through research, it is stated that news agencies in countries feel the need to communicate internationally (Boyd-Barett & Rantanen 1998). Therefore, this affects the production of local news as local news outlets have to compete with international media such as BBC. It is also important for the readers to be aware of international news as globalization simply means that all countries are interconnected. Anything that happens in a country, especially in countries that have many resources or are leading the world economically such as the United States of America, Japan etcetera can affect us as well. This is known as the Butterfly Effect (Donne 1964). However, although globalization has already taken place and many news organizations are trying to produce news for anyone, localization still exists and is still popular today. This is mainly because it is only natural that people tend to be more concern about things or incidents that affect them directly.

Local news definitely give readers a sense of familiarity as the proximity of the happening is so close to him or her. For an example, we will be more uptight about the recent flood that happened in Singapore. Singaporeans are busy . However, the fact that local news face less competition from other news organizations actually cause local news to be more sensationalized at times (Kaniss 1991).

Therefore, it may be a good thing that both globalization and localization still exist today as localization ensures that the local people do not lose their roots or what is needed for them to know and most importantly, globalization serves as a checkpoint to ensure that people form all over the world have the power to express themselves and that news organizations form all over the world should be careful and only report credible news.

References

Boyd-Barrett, O & Rantanen, T 1998, The globalization of news, Sage Publications Ltd.

Donne, J, Press, P & Berkeley, C 1964, No man is an island, Peacock Press, South Africa.

Kaniss, PC 1991, Making local news, University of Chicago Press, Chicago.

Week 4: Journalism as a Public Conversation in the 21st Century; What is the Role of the Citizen?

Nicole and Frederick did a presentation on Journalism in the 21st century and after the presentation, it is evident that many things have changed. One main thing that they pointed out was once again, the technological advancement that led to the connection to the World Wide Web –  Internet. Now that things are connected virtually, people are becoming citizen journalists. I find that the way they presented the part on citizen journalism and the internet is very clear as they plotted  a table and listed the advantages and disadvantages of each point that they make. Overall, after the presentation, I feel that I know quite a lot more about citizen journalism as they did give quite a thorough explanation.

As for the readings, journalism plays a vital role in our lives as it is through journalists that we get information and ensure that information and ideas flow in the society (Meadows 2001). It makes people think deeper when they read the points and over the years, more and more people are stepping up to voice our their opinions towards what is being reported. Through this 2-way communication, the people int he society are being  engaged in various discussions.

According to “Citizen Journalism and Audience-Generated Content”, the main difference between journalists and citizen journalists is that journalists are paid for their profession while citizen journalists are very often not paid for their contribution (Online Newsgathering 2011). Also, the information that citizen journalists provide can be first-hand information from what they have been through, or can even consists of videos taken by amateurs who do not have the skills to report news (Debatin 2008). I totally agree on a point that was made in the readings, that the best way to source audience-generated content is through online platforms while the print platform is ideal to play the content back to audiences. With technology, people find out about news almost instantaneously through the internet whereas for the newspapers, it is only published once everyday. Therefore what happens today will only reported tomorrow.

I guess public journalism is getting more and more popular in today’s society, as people feel like they have to be involved in decisions made for the society (Rosen  1996). The practitioners tap into public sentiments to reflect the sentiments in the news stories and hope to influence political processes (Romano & Hippocrates 2001). However, although many people are supportive of public journalism, many also criticize it for replacing journalism itself and affecting the standards of journalism.

As much as I am for the idea of citizen journalism, I feel that news still has to be reported objectively. Since citizen journalism promotes giving perspectives from different angles, the writer should also try to report news that are based on one’s feelings towards it. Since we are given the privilege of being able to voice out our opinions, lets embrace this privilege and make the full good use of it. Once again, when being exposed to so many different views, it is still up to the reader to decide what is right or wrong, good or bad, true or not. After all, journalism is important to us.

References

Debatin, B 2008, ‘The Internet as a New Platform for Expressing Opinions and as a New Public Sphere’, The SAGE handbook of public opinion research, p. 64.

Online Newsgathering, 2011, Citizen Journalism and Audience-Generated Content, viewed on 24 May 2011, <http://members.optusnet.com.au/~slamble/Chapter%204.html&gt;

Rosen, J 1996, Getting the connections right: Public journalism and the troubles in the press, Twentieth Century Fund Press.

Romano, A & Hippocrates, C 2001, ‘Putting the public back into journalism’, Journalism theories in practice, pp. 166-184.

Week 3: Who will pay for Journalism? Is it just about the money?

Son & I presented today and it was quite a success! The main angle of my presentation was to cover and share who are currently paying for Journalism nowadays and that there are some issues that have surfaced due to the introduction of technology. Son’s presentation focused more on the transformation of the media. I guess almost everyone agrees to the fact that new media plays a huge role in our lives already. According to the surveys and graphs from our presentation, we can tell that people, especially people from the younger generation cannot do without the internet and the majority of us actually find information and obtain news through it. The presentations were carried out well with sufficient visuals (graphs, evidence from different sources) and we did try to ensure that our course mates are involved and that they clearly understand the points that we want to put across. However, one main thing that we can include is perhaps a comparison between new media and traditional media. For example, we can insert a table to list down the main advantages and disadvantages of both new and traditional media. Overall, it was a good experience and I am glad that the class did enjoy and participated actively in our discussion after the presentation.

From the readings “The Future of Journalism”, it is stated that the whole idea about Journalism has to change. Unlike the past, whereby people can only rely on print newspapers to get credible pieces of information from journalists who have adequate training for writing, it is no longer the same currently. Newspapers Circulations differ in every country (Warren 2010), and this may be due to the fact that different countries move forward and improve at different pace. From the readings, the US newspaper market was hit exceptionally hard, as a significant number of news outlets start to close down every year. Furthermore, the decline does not only apply to the print newspapers, radio and magazines are not doing well either. Other developed countries such as New Zealand are also losing their revenue in the news organizations (Warren 2010). Through research, according to PEW News Media Consumption Survey (2009), the older generation actually takes up 50% of readers in today’s society. And this may be due to the habit formed in the past that result in the older people reading newspapers (Warren 2010). However, this habit impulse varies in each generation and evidently, there is a downward trend in the newspaper readership in decreasing age cohorts (Peiser 1972).

It is indeed difficult for the traditional newspapers to keep up with modern technology since the internet is providing news articles fro free on different websites. Large media companies now face tough competition with anybody who owns a computer, an internet connection and lastly a good idea to put across (Kruger 2009). The accessibility, the convenience of the internet are the main factors that cause people to rely on it. Take for instance the results of the Singapore General Elections 2011, many of us got to know the results through social networking sites such as Facebook and Twitter even before it was officially announced live on the Television.

However, the internet can also be a dangerous tool since its so accessible. When everyone is given the permission to post, blog or give comments, there are bound to be people who will provide ‘news’ that are not accurate (Crocco 2002). Also, some may think that the internet provides more news that are more objective as the news that the traditional media produce may be one-sided.

All in all, although the new media is expanding, traditional media is still coping relatively well and it is definitely still present in the contemporary society. Different people prefer different ways to obtain news. I personally feel that what matters the most is that we have to ensure that the news that we accept are from a credible source and that people should always compare and verify the news before accepting it.

References

Crocco, AG, Villasis-Keever, M & Jadad, AR 2002, ‘Two wrongs don’t make a right: harm aggravated by inaccurate information on the Internet’, Pediatrics, vol. 109, no. 3, p. 522.

Kruger, F 2009, ‘Who will pay for journalism if newspapers closed?’, Mall and Guardian, viewed 20 May 2011, <http://www.journalism.co.za/who-will-pay-for-journalism-if-newspapers-close.html&gt;

Peiser, W 1972, ‘Cohort Replacement and the Downward Trend in Newspaper Readership’, Age, vol. 18, p. 22.

Pew, 2009, ‘Newspapers Face a Challenging Calculus’, Pew Research Centre Publications, viewed 19 May 2011, <http://pewresearch.org/pubs/1133/decline-print-newspapers-increased-online-news&gt;

Warren, C 2010, ‘Life in the Clickstream: The Future of Journalism’, New South Wales, pg. 1-17.