Title: Trust, truth and objectivity: sustaining quality journalism in the era of the content-generating user
Abstract: This chapter explores what news organisations and those who work in them can
do to secure their futures in a digitised media environment where their
cultural authority and professional status are challenged as never before in the history
of journalism. It argues for a response, from both institutions and individuals, on
three levels. First, there needs to be an enhancement of the traditional sense-making,
sorting-and-sifting, gatekeeping functions of journalism (Bardoel, 1996). Second,
the performance of the information-gathering and date-management practices
understood by the term objectivity (which I will define below as the range of ‘strategic
rituals’ (Tuchman, 1972) underpinning the perception of truth and trust in journalism
amongst audiences, readers and users) must be given greater visibility. And
third, media organisations must maximise their enabling of user participation in
professional production environments. This includes not just the facilitation of interactivity and the innovative management of user-generated content (UGC), but the
incentivisation of user access to paid-for content through secure, convenient
micro-payment and subscription tools which can recruit users and maximise their
retention.
In suggesting these constituents for a renewed and sustainable profession ofjournalism (and the institutions which support journalism) in the era of the contentgenerating user I argue that new communication technologies do not reduce the
need for organisational and professional structures in news-making, but enhance
them. While established organisational structures may break down and transform
under the influence of new communication technologies, the need for organisation as
such does not diminish.1 The digitisation of journalism and the emergence of the
internet, Web 2.0 and all that goes with this technology in terms of expanded
information flow and user participation strengthen rather than undermine the role of
and need for organisations dedicated to the sourcing, processing, dissemination and
public discussion of journalism. To renew and sustain journalistic organisationscapable of servicing a globalised public sphere requires in turn the reassertion and
restrengthening of what have traditionally been regarded as defining journalistic
practices in the spheres of information management, sense-making and interpretation –
practices which, when recognised by readers and users, generate the key perception
of trust.
Publication Year: 2013
Publication Date: 2013-05-07
Language: en
Type: book-chapter
Indexed In: ['crossref']
Access and Citation
Cited By Count: 9
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