By David Gordon, Associate editor
The proliferation of social media is changing some of the tools that journalists use to report the news but shouldn’t affect the basic principles of good journalism, according to a panel of local news people who tackled this topic last week.
Note: A recording of the entire program, provided by Steve Hanson of Wis.community, is available here.
The panel discussion at Grace Lutheran Church drew an audience of some 20 people from both the general community and the UW-Eau Claire campus. It was co-sponsored by the church, Wisconsin Public Radio (WPR) and the Chippewa Valley Post, as part of the nation-wide observance of News Engagement Day.
The panelists agreed that the ease with which anyone can function as a journalist on social media creates a credibility problem for traditional journalism. Gary Johnson, editor of the Leader-Telegram, said that anyone with access to a social media platform can now act like a reporter or a news photographer whether or not they are trained to sort out what is important in the huge volume of available material.
Need to be discerning about news
Liz Dohms of WPR stressed the need to educate people to be discerning about the news reports they encounter and to make sure that what they are getting is fact. Material that is heavy on opinion and light on facts, and lacking in attribution, should be questioned, she said.
“How do I know this is true? How do I know this is real?” are questions that news consumers should always ask, she said, before suggesting the value of skepticism about “information that reinforces your own world view.” Dohms, whose WPR job title is “digital content producer,” added that there is an “urgent need for media literacy in education.”
Her job title, which didn’t exist until recently, illustrates how journalism is changing. An important aspect of that change is the complex relationship between traditional news outlets and the growing number of social media platforms.
Tom Giffey, managing editor at Volume One, criticized what he called “independent pontificators” using social media and producing material that doesn’t meet accepted standards of journalism.
“You’re not doing journalism, you’re doing street theater . . . or something,” he said.
Journalism requires facts to back up what is being reported, he said. He added that while journalists’ tools may change, basic principles should endure.
Giffey said “these (social media) tools were not necessarily (created) to inform us.” Rather, their purpose was “to connect and perhaps addict us,” he said, adding that the tools also aimed “to suck you in (to) spend as much time in that environment as possible.”
However, Giffey also noted that social media comments about Volume One content make it easier for his free-distribution publication to determine what segments of its potential audience it’s actually reaching. Social media, when done well, enable people to ask questions as well as provide feedback, he added.
Different staff structure needed
Dan Schillinger, director at WQOW-TV until his retirement last spring, said that the constant deadlines created by the emergence of digital media ask a great deal from journalists who now have to report online before preparing their story for print or broadcast. He said this has produced a need for media companies “to change the way we’re staffed.”
Schillinger, who is now WQOW’s community relations director, said basic reporting skills are still crucial for good journalism. Technical skills, such as knowing how to transfer material from a phone to a website, aren’t enough.
He added later that journalists must “show people that we’re the ones who pay people to collect the news, vet it and report it.”
Social media, he said, can be used to supplement newscasts and website postings of news by moving posted news stories immediately to Facebook and Twitter, with the hope that viewers on those social media platforms will click back to the station’s website.
Transparency and ‘what news is’
Jan Larson, chair of the Communication and Journalism department at UW-Eau Claire and moderator for the panel’s discussion, offered “transparency” as one way to offset any erosion of public trust in the news media. This could include identifying news sources and explaining where the information came from, as well as educating people about what news is, she said.
Journalists must meet the challenge of using social media responsibly. This could help counter the fact that increasing numbers of people are getting their news from social media, and “what rises to the top is often outrageous,” Larson added.
Schillinger said he thinks that “a lot of the people who are reading and responding to (such) ‘fake news’ are people who ordinarily don’t consume news.”
The advent of social media “has really changed the way we meet deadlines,” Dohms said, adding that “there’s still a need for us to get our facts right” regardless of the pressure created by social media to publish or broadcast material as quickly as possible. She also noted that social media are “fantastic” for getting hold of sources and have become an important resource for WPR.
Since there is so much “noise” accompanying many controversial topics, Dohms said that it’s no longer sufficient to tell both sides of a story. Rather, she said, if one side’s position is clearly not based in fact, journalists now need to let the audience know which side is to be trusted.
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