Online Reporter
Gibson Nyikadzino in-SEOUL, South Korea
IN the manifesto named “Decolonising the Mind”, the late Kenyan academic and writer Ngugi wa Thiong’o advanced the argument about the importance of originality by journalists.
At one point Ngugi described journalists and writers as surgeons of the heart and the souls of a community. To understand the critical role that journalists play in community, Cuba’s later leader Fidel Castro in 1985 credited journalists for being people who “discuss complex issues intelligibly”.
Being either a journalist is a huge responsibility that cannot be abdicated to anyone in society even when there are technological disruptions or when the industry purportedly lives in a new feudal age commanded by algorithms.
It appears today’s technological developments shaped by Artificial Intelligence now foreshadow print journalism’s fin-de-siècle; is the end of a system and its replacement with something new.
The “new” that is emerging in the interregnum between the ‘demise’ of print media and the growing opportunities advanced technology is not something that is qualitatively superior to challenge the footprints left by print journalism. In this transition, the quality of journalism has diminished and the journalist whose new work is made “simple” by technology is becoming divorced from society he or she is meant to serve and protect.
Despite having access to modern journalistic technologies, the tech-aided journalist relying much on AI tools for content generation and story writing, has not been an authentic journalist. The credentials of such a ‘journalist’ are not reflective of the community that he is a soul to, nor are they true surgeons of the heart who represent society and stimulate the appetite of the audience to think critically.
AI technologies, enabled by the internet, have contributed to frequent decline of credentialed journalism in favour of unfiltered digital content that has not been tested in the laboratory of journalistic ethics because they have pushed much for commercial gain through “monetisation”.
The biggest criticism coming against this nascent journalism is that those purporting to be journalists are transitioning their societal responsibility towards the path of profit centres where good-looking, white-toothed anchors are prioritised over credentialed reporters with substance.
To those who aspire to be original in the work of journalism, serving their society and constituents, the loss of the true value of journalism and the capture of audiences and markets only for profit is the worst sort of banality.
Those pursuing profit over journalistic service are not adhering to the strict journalistic ethics, fact-checking, and editorial oversight, embarking on a misleading service or disservice in various communities.
Humans uphold true journalism
It is undeniable that journalism is in a perpetual state of transformation, shaped by technology, but also shaped by human experience. Today artificial intelligence tools are being used or commanded to write stories for ‘journalists’. They just prompt them to. However, people have experience, technologies do not have experience. Journalists, as human beings, have emotions and have the capacity to relay meaning about issues they write about to enlighten society that AI tools cannot do. That is part of their journalistic training.
Recently, a reality online television paternity show on DNA tests to ascertain the genetic markers of father-child relationship interviewed on camera a Grade 7 child who was impregnated and had a child. The girl had a child at probably 13 or 14 years. By Zimbabwe’s law, any person below the age of 18 is a minor and cannot do anything without the consent of their parent or guardian.
Secondly, in journalism ethics, when reporting about children’s issues, no matter the urge to tell the story from an exclusive point, minors need to be protected from re-traumatisation and stigma, prioritising their human rights and dignity. Additionally, the law on child protection when not upheld by reporting circumstances endangering a child’s rights, it further empowers a third party to report the matter to the police.
In this instance, the show organisers and producers, all they had, was the desire for monetisation of content while overlooking the journalistic ethical principles that govern how truth, factuality, objectivity are arrived at without infringing anyone’s rights.
Being a storyteller, an influencer or a content creator does not make one a journalist. These groups house people with elements that debase journalism. Without adequate training, and not governed by any provisions of a professional body, their excuse is they are not obliged to follow journalistic principles. Also, at the same time, they should not have an obligation to speak for a society that did not give them a mandate. Journalism is a sacrosanct idea. It is a calling where one takes an oath, just like the Hippocratic Oath by medical practitioners, to serve a community without prejudice, click-baits, mal-information, misinformation and disinformation.
All about credibility
There are systems upon which journalism is built, chief among them is credibility. Without credibility, journalists are just like religious leaders who tell congregants about going to heaven while they break all the 10 commandments. The Holy Bible says he who breaks one law is guilty of breaking all. This applies to journalism, overlooking one set of ethic(s), that distorts the whole concept of being a trustworthy newsman.
There is a reshaping of journalistic practices that is going on across the world which have created new opportunities but raised new ethical dilemmas that credible journalists should always be ready to face and address as part of a societal concern.
Just like any other idea that has gone under consecutive mutations, the principles governing the idea are never lost despite having brand new concepts. What capitalism, socialism and communism are today, is not what they were when they were conceptualised.
With the ongoing journalistic transformations, it does not mean that all of the materials and foundations out of which journalism was built on to give it credibility can necessarily be changed. The modern purported journalist camouflaged as a content creator, blogger, or influencer is just but an entry-level life-form searching for establishment but is intellectually yet to emerge from the primordial ooze.
