The relevance of the media in today’s digital world
Can true journalism survive the digital revolution and the advent of citizen journalism?
In a room full of seasoned and aspiring journalists, the subject of traditional journalism losing its relevance is a difficult one to broach. Especially when they are strong proponents of preserving the traditions of the craft.
Which is exactly why Hacks/Hackers Abuja (#HHABJ) meet-up at the Ventures Park on the subject how to remain relevant. The audience were fully engaged and made a strong case in favour of traditional journalism.
Our goal at Code for Nigeria is to help journalists preserve the important fundamentals of their craft, while ensuring that the transition to digital publishing is seamless. We train journalists to make technology work for them rather than vice versa.
“We simplify storytelling with technology.”
Media and journalism have both the capacity and capability to teach, manipulate, sensitise and mobilise the citizenry through information dissemination. In doing development and striving towards a world of open data with free and full access to information, media plays vital roles in setting the tone for this conversation.
A really good story is able to interplay these roles and effectively engage their audience. So these are the questions we used to frame the debate at #HHABJ:
How does media lead to the formation of attitudes?
How are issues reported in the news in line with the needs and interest of social good?
Given that media is described as the watch dog of the government, who then watches the watch dog?
In Nigeria, why is there and overemphasis on politics in news reporting given all the pressing issues in development that we need to pay attention to?
How does media address significant gaps in development strategies?
Citizen journalism versus traditional journalism: can the former overtake the latter in its relevance?
Some of the questions remained debatable with the audience agreeing to disagree. On the subject of politics, participants insisted that politics was and easier sell and generates more revenue for media houses. The question then remains:
“Are we choosing profits over passion?”
Generally speaking, the consensus from the room was that journalists at least like to feel that they are guided by moral principles and ethics. In addition, the Nigerian Press Council exists as an ombudsman and regulates the veracity of reported stories.
We also spoke about the rise of citizen journalism in Nigeria, which is fuelled by social media platforms. The common consensus was that citizen journalism in its rawness and largely unverifiable nature, could never replace true journalism. It was rather described as a tool that can help shed light on uncovered stories and served as a go-ahead in some cases for investigative journalism.
A participant rightly mentioned that the onus remained on the traditional journalists to step up their game and train themselves so that technology answers to them. He highlighted the value of the StoryLab Academy and Code for Nigeria’s Hacks/Hackers community in helping many of them become conversant with technology that can support their story telling.
In addressing significant gaps in development strategies, a participant suggested it is indeed the duty of journalists to “report the unreported.” In order to change that narrative, journalists have to do the ground work and get the news behind the news as this was the only way to change the narrative.
Media is indeed one of the pillars of democracy as it wields the power of the citizens. As Thomas Jefferson once said of the freedom of the press:
And were it left to me to decide whether we should have a government without newspapers, or newspapers without a government, I should not hesitate a moment to prefer the latter. But I should mean that every man should receive those papers and be capable of reading them.
Journalism rather that being a victim of technology, can use technology to do just this: ensure every man receives the news and is capable of understanding it.
References
- Inuwa, Isa Muhammad, 2007. The Role of Media in Nation Development
- Jefferson’s preference for “newspapers without government” over “government without newspapers” (1787)
The Hacks/Hackers Abuja (#HHABJ) community gives special thanks to Ventures Park, a co-working and creative space for tech-affiliated businesses to thrive and run as a community. Ventures Park is about collaboration ensuring its members benefit from each other. They have partnered with Code for Nigeria to support us in meeting our goals of improving journalism through technology.
About the Author
Andie is a Mandela Washington Fellow passionate about development in her country Nigeria. She’s social! — you can connect with her on Instagram, LinkedIn and Twitter.
The worlds of hackers and journalists are coming together, as reporting goes digital and Internet companies become media empires.
Journalists call themselves “hacks,” someone who can churn out words in any situation. Hackers use the digital equivalent of duct tape to whip out code.
Hacker-journalists try and bridge the two worlds. Hacks/Hackers Africa aims to bring all these people together — those who are working to help people make sense of our world. It’s for hackers exploring technologies to filter and visualize information, and for journalists who use technology to find and tell stories. In the age of information overload and collapse of traditional business models for legacy media, their work has become even more crucial.
Code for Africa, the continent’s largest #OpenData and civic technology initiative, recognizes this and is spearheading the establishment of a network of HacksHackers chapters across Africa to help bring together pioneers for collaborative projects and new ventures.
Follow Hacks/Hackers Africa on Twitter and Facebook and join the Hacks/Hackers community group today.
