Online Reporter
Gibson Nyikadzino in UPPSALA, Sweden
THE emergence of social and digital media platforms has challenged traditional journalism. From this, new characters have emerged, referred to as bloggers, vloggers, and content creators.
To other extents, terms like “video vixen” have resurfaced, despite their meanings being misconstrued.
These are, however, commercially driven challenges where the individuals behind them, operating outside the mainstream, are concerned primarily with money and not the core elements of journalism.
What many consider journalism on the internet or social media is, ideally, not journalism. People now prefer social media platforms as sites of journalism, instead of relying on accredited journalists.
They turn, instead, to what can be described as entry-level life-forms that intellectually have yet to emerge from the primordial ooze.
These platforms, operating under the guise of journalism, have bred media bias, fake news, celebrity obsession, and the world of “infotainment”. They carelessly look for fast quotes while racing to post first before ensuring accuracy.
By failing to address these forms of malice embedded in so-called journalistic work, we are witnessing signs that point towards professional brokenness.
Exciting Negativity?
To capture audience attention, news media organisations have traditionally operated within the framework of feeding people negative events or information.
The old saying that “bad news makes good news” has been the foundational premise of this decades-long position.
Negative news reports or “bad news” occupies a greater portion of space in today’s newspapers or digital platforms.
From climate change-induced droughts, famines, and rising temperatures to wars, migration, xenophobia, terrorism, violence, and drug trafficking, such reports have brought anxiety upon the people.
This reflects how the media can be so negatively powerful, shaping people’s views and creating abysmal narratives.
Of course, the issues that media highlight, though negative in form, content, and character, require attention.
They need to be resolved collectively, but this demands reversing the old way of presenting news and engineering audiences with a mindset that thinks about problem-solving, promoting critical thinking, and communitarianism.
A little more than a decade ago, changing global and national dynamics presented new opportunities in media where concepts of collaboration and cooperation have gained prominence compared to confrontation.
This has marked a new shift in the news media industry and journalism practices. Concepts like development journalism, solutions journalism, peace journalism, and science journalism, among others, have been revitalised and given new pivots to address global and national challenges.
Even in Zimbabwean media organisations and newsrooms, despite having different editorial policies, there is a growing trend to incorporate solutions-oriented and driven journalism with a focus on the environment, climate, and disaster and risk management journalism, among other fields.
This has been necessitated by the changing mindset of media owners and stakeholders. Of importance is that this kind of mindset is allowing journalists to critically examine existing development government initiatives, programmes, and projects.
Grooming Budding Journalists
There are misperceptions and misconceptions about journalism that young or budding journalists have been exposed to in relation to what the practice is truly about.
The biggest link for them has been the tenets that explain the changed environment the young journalists are operating in.
In Zimbabwe, it is emerging that the way of doing journalism has changed, as the political, social, and economic dynamics are largely influencing a trajectory that prioritises getting solutions. Also, the era of polarising society to impress the whims of particular voices has passed.
In such an environment, it would be an unwise choice for budding journalists to swim against the tide and want to ride on the journalism of agitation that was brought to Zimbabwe at the beginning of the new millennium, some 25 years ago. Journalism is now defined, largely, by how it presents challenges affecting society and suggested solutions based on highlighting problems in policy and how policy can be aligned.
This, however, does not mean policies must not be critiqued. They should be critiqued with solutions in mind, because being critical of the efforts of others without having input on a solution renders one irrelevant.
During Zimbabwe’s liberation struggle, many journalists who emerged used their pens or voices to challenge the colonial establishment.
They had an alternative they presented as a solution. As times have changed, new tenets have emerged, even under the existence of the media’s traditional role of educating, entertaining, and informing.
As young or budding journalists make their mark, they have to be able to find a niche to write about, collaborate with peers, and offer solutions. There is no need for confrontation and agitative journalism.
The Right Way: A Paradigm Shift
There is a need for those who are in journalism, or those contemplating joining, to enter the practice with a commitment to do things the right way.
Many people either came or have come to journalism thinking that it is just about information gathering. That is what writers of encyclopaedias do!
Journalists, when they gather information, interpret it with statistics and facts, presenting solutions after highlighting challenges.
To do this is like pastoral work; journalism is a calling. One cannot just wake up and claim they are a journalist without a calling.
Journalism involves the incorporation and construction of new identities, influences, and approaches that give information new, meaningful frames.
The literacy levels that have been achieved and the exposure to new concepts should help in doing journalism the right way. This is a big paradigm shift for many who are currently in journalism.
A reformed journalism in Zimbabwe will lead to an improved public discourse, tolerance levels, inclusion, and a better or refined democracy.
That also means responsible journalism which focuses on providing solutions is about the generation of responses to address entrenched social problems in the realm of national development.
This is a clear trajectory that ought to be used or adopted, partly to guide journalistic practice, with preference given to objectivity over toxicity, fearmongering, negativity, and agitations presented as activism.
Journalism should not be an excuse to tear the fabric of society, but a practice that identifies where the fabric needs to be fixed to ensure it remains in shape.
Zimbabweans, remember we are one. This is my homeland!
