Witnesses are taking over the news – simply look at the Mumbai terror attacks and how the news was broadcast and disseminated. Anyone can now take on the traditional journalistic functions of reporting, gathering, organising and verifying. At least Jeff Jarvis thinks so.
He argues this will fundamentally change our experience of news, the role of witnesses and participants, the role of journalists and news organisations, and the impact reporting has on events.
At the centre of this change – the online tools, in particular online citizen powered news sites, twitter, flickr and blogging.
Supporting Jeff Jarvis’s view Roy Greenslade talks about how twitter saw a spike in activity during the Mumbai terror attacks, providing updates on the situation and offers of help for the media.
And the role of the media organisation in all of this? In the future, Jarvis suggests, organising news will be the most important role of news organisations.
Organising the news. Not gathering stories. Not storytelling. Not even verifying the news.
How about the thought that an increasing portion of the news is produced at a dangerously extreme speed (the battle for breaking news), only half thought out, half true and lazily repeated often from anonymous sources interested in selling opinion and wild speculation as news.
There is certainly a place for twitter and other online applications but as additional tools to supplement the traditional tools we have in our kitbag. Surely not to replace?
How about the dying practice of serious journalism and storytelling? In an interview with Suzanne Goldenberg, Christiane Amanpour sees the rise of the internet as a leading culprit in the dying practice of serious journalism. She argues the growth of the web has shortened attention-spans.
We must remember we are communicators. We must talk to people.
As Rory Cellan Jones said twitter is a useful additional tool but as a journalist you’d never use it to break a story, giving that story to everyone else. And he thinks the jury is still out even on the role played by twitter in the Mumbai attacks.
Don't get me wrong, twitter is an invaluable tool for obtaining different angles and insight on a story - so keep tweeting. Nevertheless surely it is too early yet to believe that twitter is at the forefront of relevant, accurate and honest witness lead journalism?
Photo courtesy of: http://www.flickr.com/photos/dharmesh84/ (creative commons)
