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Rather than ignoring new media and social media, Jesuit media educator in Zambia calls for acquiring skills to detect misinformation
By Francis Chisembe Chishala | Zambia
The advent and emergence of information communication technology in the form of internet has completely changed how journalism and public relations is done.
A new role of citizen journalism has emerged posing great legal and ethical challenges to the profession while at the same time advancing the access to media platforms and the diversification of voices as a human right.
With it, a ghost has emerged in the form of misinformation and fake news wrongly believed to be synonymous with new media and social media.
This has called upon self-censorship in the unregulated new media terrain through responsive reportage by patriotic citizens.
New media and social media are the new media vehicles that media houses utilize side by side with traditional media in disseminating information and news.
New media and social media are easily accessed by the majority in a simpler and affordable way.
What we call the Generation X and the Millennials who have access to internet, all consume information and news using new technology on their smartphones, tablets, laptops and computers.
Despite these merits of the internet, the platform has its own challenges especially when it comes to credibility, responsiveness, reliability of the information and news.
The fact that the internet is a free access platform to exercise freedom of expression and speech, has many times been met with abuse, unethical and illegal practices by information and news disseminators.
The reality is that the internet has made it easier for every person to be both a media producer and media consumer at the same time. Hence, this changes the way journalism and public relations is done in traditional media and practice.
New media, citizen journalism and democracy
We have now the reality of citizen journalism, meaning untrained people can also encore information and news on new media and social media, revealing that information and news can no longer be controlled by journalistic and professional standards.
This process has compromised the quality and accuracy of information and news.
Those of us who advocate for digital rights see opportunities for total freedom of expression and speech with this new arrangement of a free unregulated space.
In relation to human rights, where individuals are accorded equal access to media, this new arrangement of citizen journalism is a plus.
Citizen journalism therefore is a paradox where information and news might have been compromised while at the same time removing media control and regulation, resulting in total access to media for the betterment of democracy.
It is inaccurate to associate misinformation and fake news with new media and social media. We agree that misinformation and fake news has been made more pronounced with new media and social media but not all new media and social media news fall in these categories.
New media and social media shouldn't be demonized for the reality of fake news and misinformation but be necessary tenets of human rights, where a diversity of voices is not left to the devise of journalists and experts alone but to all.
While the onus would be on media houses in traditional media to effect news accuracy, truthfulness and balance, this responsibility should be shifted to citizens, who are both encoders and decoders of content in this dispensation of new media and social media.
Firstly, as citizens we should be able to practice, through the endowed gift of reason, self-censorship when encoding information and news on new media and social media.
Society expects that as citizens, we live up to certain ethical and moral standards for instance "do no harm" at all levels of existence and engagement. It is a responsibility of every citizen to act in a just and upright manner even on new media and social media.
We should desist from encoding information that is biased, divisive, untrue, pure spin or propaganda. We ought to do our research, verify facts and opinions. We have to try by all means to be as objective as possible and where we share opinion, it should be attributed as such.
The problem is to rush to publish what we have not subjected to scrutiny such as hearsay and propaganda.We should avoid being alarmists and propagandists. Facts should be facts and opinion should be opinion.
Difference between fact and opinion
Access to media accords us the right to express ourselves without sanction but it does not mean we start publishing unverified information and fake news.
We as citizens should know that we have access to larger audiences that require we up our game on reportage as thoughtful contributors and consumers of media content.
So, it is not only journalism, public relations and other professional practices that call for ethical and legal adherence but it is a mandate of every good citizen as well. There is no excuse for producers and consumers of media content on new media and social media to act or behave otherwise.
Secondly, we need to have the skills and ability to dictate misinformation and fake news. It has been argued that information and news on new media and social media ought not to be taken seriously as one would do with traditional media.
Well that would be problematic because even traditional media now has taken to reproduce on new media and social media what it encode on traditional media.
The problem with the argument of not taking information on new media and social media seriously is that more and more people now than ever before consume media content on these platforms.
And also, traditional media finds the internet a valuable source for its information and news -- meaning that it now matters because of its expediency, immediacy and engagement attributes.
What is important now and necessary is not the need to ignore information and news from new media and social media but to be able to guard what we consume and find on these platforms.
This means we ought to acquire skills and abilities to detect misinformation and fake news on new media and social media.
Learn and do things right
What are the tools available to dictate misinformation and fake news currently in the world? It is reason and knowledge. They say knowledge is power. As citizens we ought to have an attitude to learn and do things right. We have to possess a critical mind that weighs things out.
Our reasoning and knowledge should be informed by the values enshrined in our cultures and faith. It also needs to be informed by values held in our society and nation at large.
Hence, we would either take recourse to our culture, education, faith or experience when we are solving moral and ethical dilemmas in our execution of duties and responsibilities.
New media and social media are the new avenues to exercise caution and care in terms of what we share and what we consume.
The onus is on us as citizens. If society expects us to act just and right then we cannot afford to be irresponsible and unassuming on new media and social media platforms.
To be citizen journalists is not an excuse to negate ethics, morality and law abiding. Instead it is an opportunity to demystify the idea that information and news dissemination is a prerogative of journalists and public relations officers.
To be disseminators of information and news online, we are actually exercising our human rights and freedom of expression and speech as citizens in a democratic dispensation that diversifies voices.
Francis Chisembe Chishala is a Jesuit priest, media and public relations educator in a number of universities and colleges in Zambia.
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