Cyber journalism opens up a new world
It is a new world: cyberspace where all barriers are gone. Some people tend to dismiss it as elitist.
At the Bangla Academy book fair in February, some Little Magazine marketers branded Bangladesh's first online bilingual news provider bdnews24.com as capitalist, elitist and forces of imperialism when our colleagues tried to set up a projector to run a publicity campaign out of their stall and a Wi-Fi network for wireless internet connectivity.
There is nothing elitist about it when one tries, tests or exploits new technologies. It is a global phenomenon, a force that has gradually altered the lives of many, and is continuously changing the world. People from one end to another in the world see their lives change by the day. As the former chairman of the US central bank Alan Greenspan, a legendary personality in the financial world, once said: "These new technologies opened up a whole new vista of low-cost communications."
The new generation is growing up online, which is definitely different from adapting to it. The future is in the hands of those who are young today. They have grown up in an environment dominated and dictated by new technologies. The rest of us are being taken along for the ride to a world still unfolding. What we are seeing today is the first drip of what is surely going to be downpour tomorrow.
Cyber journalism is just a part of the new world created by the Internet and its associated new technologies. It has been helped by revolutionary developments in the mobile phone industry. In fact, much of the Internet traffic is now routed through mobile internet. With your mobile phone, you also access your email box and transfer business files from anywhere.
The Internet Service Providers or ISPs now cater to about a million individuals in Bangladesh. The figure is not small in a country that has imported roughly five million PCs so far.
But the mobile internet provides connectivity to several million people. bdnews24.com is tapping into that, being the first in this country to launch mobile and WAP news sites. Hundreds of corporate executives and commuters from such background sitting in their cars watch bdnews24.com using their PDAs or Personal Digital Assistants.
The bdnews24.com experience
bdnews24.com is a mix of cyber and traditional journalisms—built on the fast-paced cyber model but guided by the principles of accuracy and objectivity and ethical values. It is different from newspapers and unique in Bangladesh, as the site is independent of a traditional newspaper.
Most newspapers have their Web sites but they do not update round the clock. bdnews24.com does.
Unlike other news sites, it does not fall behind the real time. It competes with TV, and more often than not beats television news.
The growth of new-age communications systems has enabled reporters to send news from the scene by mobile phone to the newsroom. Deskers write and edit the reports on computers before they are posted online for the larger world to read and consume.
A senior newsroom editor keeps a 'watchful eye' on the site for mistakes or bloomers even when he is on the move or drives to work. He remains connected by the mobile internet for most of the day.
It only shows you can access Web sites or stay connected with others from wherever you are—from remote areas, from the farthest corner of the earth.
Cyber journalism and blogging
A bottom-up, self-organised form of uploading has emerged: blogging.
A blog is one's personal soapbox where thoughts about a subject or an issue can be uploaded.
The voice of a blogger can be heard as far as BBC and CNN or The New York Times. These bloggers have created an army of online commons with no barriers to entry.
Like other new inventions, blogging has pitfalls. Bloggers post wild allegations and rumours on their sites because nobody is in charge, really.
Information sloshes around with total freedom. Blogging can create as much energy, buzz and hard news as traditional journalism.
A new blog is created every seven seconds, according to technocrati.com, a site that tracks these daily update Web journals. Technocrati says there are more than 24 million blogs already and the number is growing at about 70,000 a day and doubling every five months.
It is an amazing world that connects Iraqi bloggers who put their own take on news from the frontline for the people as far as Bangladesh.
In recent Malaysian national elections, eight bloggers became MPs. The so-called mainstream media, allegedly, sided with the ruling coalition, forcing the opposition to turn to the Internet. Much of the campaign was played out online.
BBC's willingness to open itself to bloggers shows the importance and invincibility of blogging. It's still not clear how it will affect traditional journalism.
Traditional news organisations around the world are now taking more blended approaches. It is impossible to imagine how it is going to be like in 10 years from now.
Look at the facebook.com phenomenon, an online social directory that is spreading virally in students of colleges and universities—mostly private ones in Bangladesh. Millions of people—obviously mostly young—have a platform to tell their own stories.
Cyberspace: a great equaliser
Cyberspace is a world—equal to all, except for a few barriers.
Google, surely the most popular search engine, equalises access to information. It has no class boundaries—only few education barriers. If users can get on Google, they have access to the world's greatest research tool.
Alan Cohen, a top executive of Airespace, which sells wireless technology, said recently: "Google is God." God is everywhere, so is Google. God knows everything, so does Google. "Any questions in the world, you can ask Google."
Online journalism and ethics
No matter what platform is used for journalism, its primary mission is to provide information that gives meaning and context to the events that shape people's lives, communities and the world.
"In doing so, we hold powerful interests accountable and remain true to our mission of public service through fair and accurate reporting," says poynter.org, a site for journalism resources.
Journalism must catch up with the new forms of communication that are emerging. Journalists must adapt and grow to meet this challenge if they are to remain relevant.
The journalistic mission carries with it the responsibility to reach audiences in formats that extend beyond the printed word. Journalists must capitalise on emerging technologies to provide an even deeper news experience through multimedia and interactivity.
Journalists must embrace the fact that the public wants to choose the ways in which they are informed and to sculpt the conversations of the day. By failing to accept this new reality, journalists run the risk of losing credibility and a very vital role in creating an informed populace.
Some points to remember
• Editorial integrity is crucial to maintaining the trust of the public and the credibility of the brand. TRUST is the key word here.
• The editorial and business sides of the operation need to communicate openly about how best to capitalise on the growing economic opportunities online.
• Journalists should be guided by three main principles: telling the story as fully and truthfully as possible, acting as independently as possible, and causing as little harm as possible.
• The obligation to correct mistakes and be transparent about the error is not diminished in the online environment.
• Speed is a core advantage of the medium but must not compromise accuracy, fairness or other journalistic values such as objectivity.
The world of journalism is fast moving towards the one that can take it all, blend it all and present it all in one go and on one platform. Some people call it convergent journalism. That can happen only on the Internet, on the cyberspace.
Arun Devnath, news editor, and Gazi Nasiruddin Khokan, chief sub-editor, contributed with research and writing. This write-up is adapted from a lecture delivered on cyber journalism in Bangladesh Sunday at Stamford University.
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