With the growth of new media, journalism has moved online and provided writers with an exhilarating and uncensored abandon. An abandon which is coupled with intense scrutiny from readers and critics. It is this scrutiny which requires us journalists to be more careful while reaching out to a larger audience than ever before.

While the alertness and the filters that new media offer are great, and will make us more aware of keeping to journalistic ethics, there is also the ugly reality of Twitter trolls and venom-laden attackers who are ever-eager to destroy reputations. Whatever the motivation for such alertness, it can lift journalism to a higher level and can also drag it down into the horrible gutter that is often the playground for ideological extremists.

It has been common practice for journalists to write pieces for television or print based on press releases and government documents. In fact, this happens on a daily basis across media. While this is often a function of two factors, a journalist’s drive or enthusiasm in getting information from the ground and tempting armchair laziness, it can also be a function of budgets. On one hand, it is unlikely that any newspaper or TV network will send a journalist to Sierra Leone several times during a conflict for a news report, or to Africa to study and observe any sort of governance or policy issues. Such privilege is reserved for politicians and bureaucrats who undertake “study tours” (on taxpayer money) to see the impact of policy initiatives on the ground.  Unfortunately, not many of them share their wisdom through articles and columns. The private sector, on the other hand, does not make this investment because the economics of news media in India doesn’t allow for such indulgence. Thus, google and other sources it is!

This has been the accepted norm for decades. (In the pre-internet age, reference material from libraries was the source.)

However, with the coming of age of the online space and software programmes, ever-alert individuals with rival political points of view are quick to catch any borrowed ideas, data or grammar. This vigilance can help journalism become more careful, more accurate and of higher quality. The distinction between plagiarism and “economical journalism”/armchair journalism is important to distinguish.

Those of us who have been journalists have had the privilege of getting more credit than was due to us, and since new media has come in are getting more abuse and accusations than we deserve. The bouquets are wilting. We have to be prepared to take the hits on the jaw as the ring gets more crowded. Good luck to us all.

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