Victoria Vidal San Miguel (Erasmus)

Compréhension de la presse GR01

What is good journalism in the age of social media?

When searching for the word "journalism" in the Encyclopedia Britannica, the

following definition appears: "journalism is the gathering, preparation and

distribution of news and related commentary and feature materials through print and

electronic media such as newspapers, magazines, books, blogs, webcasts, podcasts,

social networking and social media sites, and email, as well as through radio, film

and television. The word journalism was originally applied to the reporting of

current affairs in print, specifically in newspapers, but with the advent of radio,

television, and the Internet in the 20th century the use of the term expanded to

include all print and electronic communication dealing with current affairs".

As described above, the invention of the Internet, radio, and television at the end of

the 20th century marked a turning point in journalism. Information was no longer

only disseminated in paper format through newspapers, but now encompassed

several channels that made information reach faster, further and to many more

people. Years later, with the arrival of social media, journalism underwent a

revolution. The immediacy of the news arrived, and all the barriers came down.

Including that which separated the journalist from the reader. Today, readers not

only condition the news agenda, but they also even direct or guide the practice of
 Victoria Vidal San Miguel (Erasmus)
Compréhension de la presse GR01

news reporting. Journalism has become an interactive activity, where every reader

can comment, share, approve or deny the news. In the book The Elements of

Journalism, Bill Kovach, and Tim Rosenstiel (2007) explain that news are

increasingly produced and conditioned by reader-users. The advantage of this

phenomenon is that it contributes to a journalism based on public interest, an

essential pillar, but the disadvantage is the ease with which fake news can be created

and disseminated, reaching the screens of millions of users in a matter of seconds,

and smashing good journalism.

Getting straight to the point, good journalism corresponds to quality and accurate

journalism based on ethical, independent, critical, and public interest content. These

four pillars are essential to its achievement and have remained the same since the

beginning of this activity. It takes training, experience, and practice to produce good

journalism, but also to distinguish it nowadays, as the web and our environment are

plagued by journalism of all kinds that does not adhere to these four pillars.

Currently, the main difference between good real journalism and fake journalism

lays on its purpose, which is to provide citizens with accurate and timely information

to assert their rights in society and not to persuade, panic, misinform or manipulate

them. Furthermore, it is necessary to keep in mind that good journalism is not about

entertainment, but about truthful information. This is where our role as readers and
 Victoria Vidal San Miguel (Erasmus)
Compréhension de la presse GR01

defenders of good journalism comes in. Good journalism is out there, on social

media among others, but we have to know how to filter and distinguish it from the

thousands of news that exist on the same topic or issue, known as “noisy data”. In

addition to all the characteristics mentioned here that distinguish good journalism

from fake one, the source of the information is the first thing to look at when filtering

a news story. Social media has ensured that any user can become a creator,

consumer, and distributor of content if they have a mobile phone at hand, which does

not make them journalists or sources of truthful information but just opinion sharers.

Their publications, for example on Twitter, can help us to read pieces of the immense

puzzle that forms public opinion, but never to inform us or to serve us as a basis for

forming our point of view. On the other hand, good journalism today must fulfil its

pillar of independence. This means that it must be free and not affiliated to any

political or social opinion. It must report with impartiality and objectivity, otherwise

its result would be to manipulate. That said, when it comes to filtering the source,

there cannot be only two categories, journalist, and non-journalist. Within

journalists and real information sources, such as newspapers’ Twitter accounts, we

have to separate those influenced by political parties and ideologies from the free

ones, where impartial reality converges with completely different points of view that

seek the reader to form their opinion from scratch and not from a preconceived idea.

Most national newspapers today correspond to a particular ideology or are largely

 Victoria Vidal San Miguel (Erasmus)
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affiliated with the ideals of a particular political party. As a result, to consume good

journalism, it would not be enough to read just one of them every morning, but to

read each and every one of them, in order to hear the same news from different points

of view. Finally, it should be noted that cross-checking information is key to produce

quality journalism, and nowadays, also to consume it. It is not only the task of

journalists but of all consumers of digital news to cross-check them. The speed and

immediacy with which news are disseminated on social media means that, in a

matter of seconds, thousands of versions of an initial and truthful news item can be

created. The real issue comes with the fact that these fake news items are spread and

mixed with the real ones, creating an entanglement of news that could lead to a

divided society based on misinformation, as it has already occurred with e.g., the

coronavirus misinformation pandemic.

In conclusion, journalism today is everybody's business, and so is the dissemination

and consumption of good journalism. As readers, consumers, creators, and

interpreters of content, we have to be aware of our responsibility and fulfill it. We

need to know the traits that distinguish a quality journalism from a detrimental one,

to promote it and not participate in any kind of journalism that does not comply with

the four pillars of being ethical, independent, critical and of public and not private

interest. Good journalism in times of social networks is the one which uses them to
 Victoria Vidal San Miguel (Erasmus)
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bring the truth to more people. The one which promotes through them a debate of

public opinion around objective and impartial information, with the aim of creating

an informed, free and critical society.

Bibliography

Alejandro, J. (2010). Journalism in the age of social media. Reuters Institute

Fellowship Paper, 5, 1-47.

Gloviczki, P. J. (2015). Journalism in the age of social media. In Journalism and

Memorialization in the Age of Social Media (pp. 1-23). Palgrave Macmillan, New

York.

Franklin, B. (2014). The Future of Journalism: In an age of digital media and

economic uncertainty. Journalism Studies, 15(5), 481-499.

Heinonen, A. (1999). Journalism in the age of the net: Changing society, changing

profession. Tampere University Press.