Dangers of Internet Journalism

The Internet is a curious beast. On one hand, it is killing traditional spreadsheet news. On the other, it is giving them a lifeline by alllowing news makers to take advantatge of a new way to reach new audiences.

Let's look at the statistics on digital readership.

Most of our generation don't even order the usual spreadsheet newspapers anymore. Straits Times? What's that? The New Paper? Seriously, who still reads that tabloid?

But the problem with Internet Journalism is that there is alot of trash running wild on the Internet. With traditional news agencies, one could still control the content and verify it. Standards were kept and journalistic intergrity secured. With the rise of quick reads and snazzy headlines, those values that allowed journalists to be the gatekeepers of the Fourth Estate have quickly broke down.

Everyone with access to the Internet can become a citizen journalist. All you need is a blog or twitter or facebook account and people will read what you write. Maybe they wouldn't read everything but at the very least, they will read the snippets. And that's the problem.

Case in point, let's look at Singapore's very own citizen journalist website, STOMP.

In 2012, STOMP staff Samantha Francis posted a photo on STOMP claiming that she took a photo of the train door open while the train was in motion. After an investigation, it turned out that the photo was a) not taken by her, b) taken from social media and c) fake. She was, understandably, fired. You can read the story here.

In 2013, STOMP reposted fake news taken from a satire website called newnation.sg. The story can be found here.

Despite being owned by SPH, fake news still managed to get onto the website. If there was any semblence of journalistic processes, it was sorely lacking at STOMP. And that's the problem. It is neigh impossible to check every single piece of fact or information or picture or video submitted by the public. To do so would take up so much time that the news will never get published. 

Or how about the recent Lee Kuan Yew death hoax. A picture that was supposed to be a screengrab of the Prime Minister's office regarding the death of Lee Kuan Yew went viral. What was supposed to be a hoax was soon spread around WhatsApp and Facebook as real news. To their credit, the proper news agencies, CNA and Straits Times fact-checked and refrained from publishing the hoax but reputable news agencies did publish the hoax as real news.

In this age of 24-hr news cycles, news becames stale and old very quickly. The rush to attact eyeballs means that news agencies need the latest news. There is only so much and so many places old-school journalist can go and cover and so it looks like the trend to citizen journalism to contribute stories will continue. But we must be aware of the dangers.

I apologize for this very long and wordy post. So here's a video of cats.