Gender Bias and Sexual Harassment in the Against Females in Journalism

The topic of gender inequality and bias is one that affects all professions in the working world, and Journalism is not an exception. It may not be obvious for persons who are not directly affected by this, so gender bias can easily be overlooked, though, many journalists face this challenge on countless occasions. Gender bias, and sexual harassment, though affecting both males and females in the career, mostly target women and has lead to various repercussions and consequences. According to a 2018 episode on Al Jazeera’s social media community, The Stream, for some female journalists, the job comes with the threat of gender-based violence, harassment and abusive language online. This does not only occur online but also out there in the real world. 

It is known across the globe that the work of a journalist is dangerous as he or she has to work in precarious environments and in life-threatening cases. This is intensified for females as they are faced with this challenge from both in and outside of the workplace. Sarah Stillman, a staff writer for the New York Times said in a YouTube vlog entitled Let's Talk: Personal Boundaries, Safety & Women in Journalism by DartCenter, that bosses may make the female journalist feel like she has to use her “feminine charms” in order get certain information from a source even if the journalist is not comfortable with doing so. There are many examples in this particular vlog post that scream gender bias in the field of journalism, but more specifically to sexual harassment towards female journalists. Journalist Judith Matloff explained that one of her previous bosses used to make comments on her body and ask about who she was sleeping with. This is something that a great number of ladies face on a regular basis in the workplace and it does not seem to stop when they step out of the office. In fact, it seems to have escalated even more. 

In many instances, female journalists are preyed upon by persons who are important sources to the journalist’s story. In the same vlog, a featured journalist, Marcela Gaviria related her experience with a male source that kept harassing her. “He started sort of writing me love letters, and calling me at odd hours and I needed to maintain this relationship with him because he was sort of central to the story I was working on.” While this may not be the same for every female journalist, at least at one point in their career they are faced with something similar. Investigative Journalist, May Jeong said that this topic was something that was spoken about in discussions involving strategies to deal with such situations, but it was the murder of a fellow female reporter that made them realize exactly how deadly it is for female journalists.   

Sexual harassment, though a major problem for women in this field, is not the only thing that affects females and speaks directly to gender bias. Leadership roles and positions of power in the field is also imbalanced when comparing the number of male titles versus female titles. A study that was done by BBC Future entitled “How we’re Tackling Gender Imbalance”, sought to balance the scale and level the playing field for both genders. It states that while the media didn’t invent gender bias, it has a key role in sustaining it. An editor of TheAtlantic.com, Adrienne LaFrance says in the study, “Both in newsrooms and in news articles, men are leaders – they make more money, get more bylines, spend more time on-camera, and are quoted far more often than women – by a ratio of about 3:1.” Adding to this, New York Times David Leonhardt said recently that journalists are allowing sexism to help dictate their sources by pretending to ignore gender.

A 2013 article in The Conversation entitled “Hard evidence: is there still a gender bias in journalism?” shows a survey done using some UK newspapers which depict that more males get their names in the bylines than females in a ratio of 78:22. This research was conducted in 2012 and is a gender analysis of bylines in UK newspapers. According to the article, women are mostly advised to seek softer feature stories and discouraged from harder news stories. The research also states that only twenty-three per cent of women journalists are present in the parliamentary lobby and there is only one female political journalist listed in periodicals and magazines. Though this was done years ago, not much has really changed about the situation. 

Along with this is the preconception of what female journalists can and cannot do in their careers. Featured professionals in Al Jazeera’s The Stream say that persons believe that operating a camera was a “man’s job” and that there are particular places that female journalists cannot attend. It is believed or perceived that depending on a certain nature of a story a female writer cannot write or cover it. Al Jazeera’s senior correspondent Hoda Abdel-Hamid said she was told more than once that she should not go to a certain place because it was not a place for women, which pushed her to prove herself. She was also told that because she was a woman, people will not listen to what she says but pays attention to how she looks instead. 

In light of all these challenges for women in journalism, many international bodies and media entities have put in place systems and measures to help prevent harassment against female practitioners. According to an article from the Global Investigative Journalism Network (GIJN) entitled “GIJN Guide: Resources for Women Journalists,” some sources established to help address gender discrimination and sexual harassment in the workplace are A Toolkit, developed by Women News in Sub-Saharan Africa, which includes awareness posters, sample policies, and practical guides. The International Federation of Journalists in partnership with the International Labour Organisation campaigns to stop violence against women in journalism. The Time’s Up Legal Defense Fund in the United States connects legal attornies and media specialists with women who have been affected by sexual harassment. Press Foward in Washington DC has a step by step guide for female journalists who have been in this situation. Several other media houses and organizations are working on preventing and helping the females who had to undergo such experiences at some point in their careers. 

The organizations know how to tackle sexual harassment, but do they have a plan to deal with gender bias? How does one even go about changing the perception of the society about what a female journalist is allowed to do or what she can and cannot do where and when? 

Writer: Katrich Walker

See the following links for further reading:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=27&v=hLa8dp-Jh5s 

http:http://stream.aljazeera.com/story/201803072041-0025601

https://www.bbc.com/future/article/20190117-how-bbc-future-is-tackling-gender-imbalance 

https://gijn.org/gijn-guide-resources-for-women-journalists/ 

http://theconversation.com/hard-evidence-is-there-still-a-gender-bias-in-journalism-19789 

Ethical Issues Faced by Journalists While Using Social Media

In today’s age of journalism, professional journalists share the social media space with tweeters, bloggers, YouTubers, and other ardent social media users. However, journalists have to be careful when using these platforms as there is much backlash over what journalists can say or include on their social media accounts both professional and personal. While many news organizations and media companies encourage reporters to use social media to gather information and create a “brand” for themselves, online comments, tweets or posts can put a reporter in the negative spotlight. Professional journalists must be mindful of what they post and how they post to avoid having their character or credibility diminished due to ethical issues. 

Even though social media has opened doors for Journalists and their professions, Basyouni Ibrahim Hamada in his work entitled Social Media: A Turning Point into Global Journalism, Identity and Ethics, highlights that the new media platforms can become very problematic when it comes to being professional online. “There is no doubt that this new phenomenon has positively promoted the civil sphere; meanwhile, it comes at the expense of quality of journalism as it blurred the lines between professional and non-professional journalistic work.” Professionalism is indeed a huge part of ethical practices. Along with this fact, are other problems such as the lack of fact-checking and editorial proofreading, rumors and lies dissemination, the invasion of privacy, lack of logical coverage of topics, plagiarism and copyright infringement, no accountability present, and deception, manipulative practices, and undisclosed conflicts of interest. 

These problems, if not paid keen attention to can implicate a journalist’s career in an extremely negative way. We have all seen this in recent events over the past few years. Incidents involving these ethical breaches range from journalists expressing partisan opinions, promoting political views, endorsing candidates and making offensive comments. With that in mind, the ethical challenge is to develop social media guidelines that allow reporters to explore the new digital media world, yet also draw reasonable limits on personal commentary.

 Ryan Guerrero in his 2018 article entitled The Ethical Issues of Social Media in Journalism. Do journalists need social media guidelines? says establishing reasonable guidelines will allow journalists to have an independent voice. It will also ensure that they follow protocols and maintain professionalism in their jobs. Social media plays an imperative role in today’s journalism. Journalists and public relations personnel are almost constantly required to use social media and it is considered a valuable tool for communicating information to the public and vice versa.    

The article also states that in a recent Cision Global Social Journalism Study, showing how journalists approach and use social media, between the 2012 and 2017 emphasis on the Cision Global Journalism Study, there was a 12 percent increase in the number of journalists that said they post content to social media platforms daily.

 As journalists continue to create increasing amounts of augmenting content for social media, guidelines are starting to become implemented for reporters and social media influencers alike. Among the many organizations that implement social media guidelines include the Society of Professional Journalists. SPJ states that “the Society strongly encourages its leaders and members to regularly use social media to communicate, not only among them but with the broader journalism community.”

In April, The Atlantic fired columnist Kevin Williamson for past tweets he made on the issue of abortion. A few influential Twitter users learned that Williamson had previously commented on Twitter that woman who has abortions should be treated as murderers, and subject to the death penalty. These incidents have led to an eye-opening amount of questions about journalism ethics and social media use, regarding what the role of a journalist should be on social media. “I think it all depends on the platform you are, and how big your voice is,” says Yumi Wilson, associate professor of journalism at San Francisco State University. “Depending on the site, you want to approach your audience in different ways. Facebook should be kept personal, Instagram should contain a portion of both personal and business, and Twitter should highlight your opinions and thoughts in a safe and respectable manner.” As a journalist on social media, it’s critical to ponder whether you really want to say something to the world online. Journalists must take a step back and think to themselves, “Is this something I really want to share with the world?”, or “Will I be harming someone with these comments?” 

In an article written by a professor of media and communications, Charlie Beckett entitled When Journalists go Online: Ethical Challenges for News and Social Media, a case study was examined which was conducted by Stephen Abell, Director of the Press Complaints Commission (PCC). The case study looks at ethicals issues that arise when journalists use social media and also give pointers on how to avoid them. “First, we have to consider the nature of the information, how private it is, how private the person regards it to be. Secondly, we need to think about the extent to which they willingly published it and put it out there to a wide audience. These things are not absolute…sometimes things are clearly in the public domain but it would still be intrusive to refer to them.” Stated Abell in the article. 

A professional journalist must also consider the policies of the media house with which he/she works, think about the possible reactions he/she would receive after the post is made, contemplate the on whether one should share such an opinion or not. The truth is, a journalist is known to relate the facts and is expected to do only that, which explains why the journalists will get a backlash for his/her commentary on a particular topic of interest. It is the job description that precedes the person. 

As journalists, we are in the position to have an influence on others, a role that must be treated carefully and professionally. One must find the perfect balance between commentary and opinion on social media. One must also be mindful of the various ethical issues that will arise as a journalist using social media. It is important that the journalist is aware that he/she is not as the ordinary unprofessional and that they have an image and standard to uphold as the average man looks to them for the facts. Anything a journalist say or do in the public’s eyes is held as true or valid due to the role of the profession. One must be reminded that their responsibility and obligation is to ensure that the people have access to important, accurate and truthful information. This is to be applied both on and off-air or paper which includes social media and other new media publications. 

Written by
Katrich Walker
Raquel McKenzie 


See the links below for further references:

https://studylib.net/doc/8643665/the-impact-of-social-media-on-journalism-ethics 

https://blogs.lse.ac.uk/polis/2010/03/19/when-journalists-go-online-ethical-challenges-for-news-and-social-media/ 

https://www.intechopen.com/books/social-media-and-journalism-trends-connections-implications/social-media-a-turning-point-into-global-journalism-identity-and-ethics

Is Investigative Journalism Dying in Jamaica?

In contemporary Jamaican society, many individuals have written off investigative journalism and have pronounced it dead. A letter to the editor appeared in the Jamaica Gleaner written by a Tryrell Morris that raised a rather skeptical eyebrow when it was read. The article was entitled “Where is the Investigative Journalism?” and expressed the writer’s distaste of the so-called lack of work that journalists in Jamaica are doing when it comes to pursuing in-depth investigations. The 2019 article cited only one example of this instance in which he believed little to no investigation was done, not taking into consideration the fact that that example in itself, was an investigation. He described the work of Journalists as lazy, on-the-surface work of news reporting and expressed that he is frustrated by it. Morris also mentioned that the only instance in which investigative journalism was practice was by Janice Budd on CVM TV’s Probe of that same topic.

We are not completely in agreement with the claim that our Jamaica-based Journalists are not doing their required investigation in the stories that they are producing. I disagree for very good reasons. There are countless other examples, especially recent ones in which extensive research was exerted, and the numerous awards won for Investigative Journalism at the Press Association of Jamaica Journalism (PAJ) Awards yearly. The cases vary depending on the nature of the story. It is clear that the writer of this editorial did not do any research before sending this letter, or if he did, it was not enough as ignorance was evident.

Working with the only example that was given in the article, claiming that not enough probing was done for the report, it is quite obvious that the information that the writer was looking for could not be obtained since the case was still ongoing. However, if one really pays attention to the news, especially TVJ news, you will realize stories presented there show the amount of legwork that is put into it. A few cases are the corruption story at the Firearm Licensing Authority (FLA), the Ruel Reid situation, and the Petrojam Scandal. Those are huge stories that require a great deal of scrutiny. A smaller story such as the one reported on TVJ News on May 28, 2019, where a police officer was held in custody because he allegedly killed his wife, highlights Investigative Journalism. TVJ’s Shemala Pullen went on the scene of the crime, spoke to the deceased niece and mother, and later updates were made on the case. Is that not Investigative Journalism? Perhaps the writer’s understanding of investigative journalism is different from the posited definition of the term. According to dictionary.cambridge.org, it is a type of journalism that seeks to discover information of public interest that someone is trying to hide. The story of the long wait at a comprehensive clinic in St Andrew may not be information that was being kept hidden, but it is of great human interest.

It is not fair for Morris to say that Investigative Journalism in Jamaica is being “lazy,” because the awards issued by the Press Association of Jamaica denote that there is work being done in that regard. According to a publication in the Gleaner on December 3, 2017, the Hugh Crosskill/Raymond Sharpe Award for investigative journalism award went to Dania Bogle from The Gleaner and Jordan Forte from TVJ. A November 2018 report on RJR News revealed that Giovanni Dennis of TVJ won three awards including one for Investigative Journalism. The Jamaica Observer gave more flesh on the awards of 2018 when it stated that the President's Award for Investigative Journalism went to Giovanni Dennis, TVJ for Pothole Paradise and the Certificate of Merit: Andrea Chisholm, TVJ for FLA Licence Series. Is this not evidence of Investigative Journalism being conducted, or does the PAJ normally give away awards like these on a yearly basis for no apparent reason? These are the two most recent PAJ Journalism Awards,  which take place annually. The one for 2019 has not occurred as yet, but based on what is portrayed in the media recently, it is safe to say that there will be another one or two of this award to be issued.

If a direct response should be given in regards to the example Morris used about the Uchence Wilson Gang trial, I would say that given the circumstances, the information reported was all that could be obtained because Journalists cannot really interview a witness like that unless they are willing to breach their code of ethics. Added to that is the fact that these witnesses are usually afraid to talk to Journalists especially about the things they may know relating to the trials. If a reporter cannot get a person to talk about something, they cannot force them to do so as it is highly unethical and may lead to the tarnish of a Journalist’s career.

With that being said, the digital age is a renaissance period for investigative reporting. Because it brings a revival of investigative journalism where the culture and style of the profession changes, embracing the new media platforms that emerge with the digital age. This has been made possible through collaboration and scaling up investigations to national and transnational levels. The downside to scaling up investigations is that local inquiries may suffer. Investigations may also be more narrowly targeted to assure a story outcome. There are different models of collaboration and established media play a critical role in all of them. Some partnerships have been more successful than others. WikiLeaks collapsed, in part, because power in the partnership was not distributed equally, and personal relationships were strained.

Data journalism plays a vital role in enabling reporters to interrogate information and find patterns in the data indicating systemic wrongdoing. This includes incorporating social science methods such as statistical analysis to reveal “hidden truths”. Mass anonymous data leaks combined with large-scale investigative collaborations push back against national governments’ national security laws that hamper journalists’ access to, and use of, sensitive documents and hinder whistleblowers’ capacity to speak out.

Investigative journalism is evidence-based reporting. This makes it a vital counter-narrative to fake news. Verified news returns authority to mastheads and media brands, which can offset falling public trust in media.

See the links below for further references

http://jamaica-gleaner.com/article/news/20171203/rjrgleaner-group-reporters-take-top-honours-paj-awards

https://www.adnews.com.au/opinion/debunking-the-myth-that-investigative-journalism-is-dying

http://rjrnewsonline.com/local/big-wins-for-rjrgleaner-group-at-paj-awards-ceremony

http://www.jamaicaobserver.com/news/observer-s-porter-junior-happy-with-journalism-awards_150736

Is Investigative Journalism dead?

      In contemporary Jamaican society many individuals have written off investigative journalism and have pronounced it dead. A letter to the editor appeared in The Jamaica Gleaner from Tyrrell Morris that was rather eyebrow raising when read. The article was entitled “Where is the Investigative Journalism?” and expressed the writer’s distaste of the so-called lack of work that journalists in Jamaica are initiating when it relates to perusing in depth investigations. The 2019 article highlighted only one of example where he believed little or no investigation was done. He described the work of Journalists as lazy and expressed that he is frustrated by it. Morris also mentioned that the only instance that investigative journalism was practiced was by Janice Budd on CVM’s Probe of that same topic.
     From an opinionated stance, complete agreement with the idea that investigative journalism is dead in Jamaica does not share a cohesive thought. This disagreement is for very good reasons. There are countless examples, especially recent ones where extensive research was exerted into Investigative Journalism and the numerous awards won for Investigative Journalism at the Press Association of Jamaica Journalism Awards this year. The cases vary depending on the nature of the story. It is clear the writer of this editorial did not do any research before sending this letter or if he did, it was not enough as ignorance was evident.

With reference to the only example that was given in the article claiming that not enough probing was done for the report, it is evident that the information the writer was seeking could not be obtained as the case was ongoing. However, if one really pays attention to the news, especially TVJ news, you will realize stories presented there show the amount of legwork that is put into it. A few cases are the corruption story at the Firearm Licensing Authority (FLA), Ruel Ried’s pool of corruption, and the Petrojam Scandal. These are huge stories that require a great deal of scrutiny. A smaller story such as one that was reported on TVJ News on May 28, 2019, regarding a police officer who was held in custody because he allegedly killed his wife TVJ’s Shemala Pullen went on the scene of the crime, spoke to the deceased niece and mother and later provided updates on the matter. Is that not Investigative Journalism? Perhaps the writer’s meaning of investigative journalism is different from the posited definition of the term. According to dictionary.cambridge.org, it is a type of journalism that seeks to discover information of public interest that someone is trying to hide.

It is unfair for Morris to say that Investigative Journalists in Jamaica are being “lazy,” because the awards issued by the Press Association of Jamaica denotes that there is work being done in that regard. According to a publication in the Gleaner on December 3, 2017, the Hugh Crosskill/Raymond Sharpe Award for investigative journalism award went to Dania Bogle from The Gleaner and Jordan Forte from TVJ. A November 2018 report on RJR News revealed that Giovanni Dennis of TVJ won three awards including one for Investigative Journalism. The Jamaica Observer gave more flesh on the awards of  2018 where it is stated that the President's Award for Investigative Journalism went to  Giovanni Dennis, TVJ for Pothole Paradise and the Certificate of Merit: Andrea Chisholm, TVJ for  FLA License Series. Is this not evidence of Investigative Journalism being commended, or does the PAJ normally give away awards like these on a yearly basis for no apparent reason? These are the two most recent PAJ Journalism Awards.

In regards to the example used by Morris about the Uchence Wilson Gang trial,   it is safe to say that given the circumstances the information reported was all that could be obtained because a Journalists cannot interview a witnesses without adhering to the code of ethics. Added to that is the fact that these witnesses are usually afraid to talk to Journalists especially about information they house related to the trials. If a reporter cannot get a person to talk about something, they cannot force them to do so, it is highly unethical and may tarnish journalist’s career.

     On the other hand, using the Australian example, human rights lawyer Amal Clooney warned at the recent Defend Media Freedom conference in London that the decline in press freedom is not limited to non-democracies like North Korea.Another gloomy tale for news outlets is falling levels of public trust as more fake news confuses people about what is real and what is not. Sadly, powerful world leaders from Donald Trump to Rodrigo Duterte weaponized the term “fake news” to weaken news media’s legitimacy.

     It was a breath of fresh air when freelance journalist and writer Kate Chappell recently brought a community journalism training program entitled “Building a Journalist with Integrity and Impact” to my attention. Chappell, along with Zahra Burton of Global Reporters for the Caribbean, have been working with Omar Lewis, Civil Society Coordinator at National Integrity Action (NIA) and Ian McKnight, Chief of Party USAID COMET II, to train about 30 community members in investigative journalism and will be publishing 10 pieces (in print, radio and television outlets such as ROOTS FM, MORE FM, The Gleaner and POWER 106) produced by the novice journalists in the next few weeks. The aim of the program is to cultivate investigative skills as well as to hold authorities accountable by using tools such as the Access to Information Act (ATI).

With that being said, the digital age is a renaissance period for investigative reporting. This has been made possible through collaboration and scaling up investigations to national and transnational levels.

 Below is the link to the featured article for reference.

http://jamaica-gleaner.com/article/news/20171203/rjrgleaner-group-reporters-take-top-honours-paj-awards

https://www.adnews.com.au/opinion/debunking-the-myth-that-investigative-journalism-is-dying

Issues and Controversies Journalists Face

    There is a vast collection of topics that can be covered when the issues affecting journalism are being examined, but since lately, more concern has been placed on whether print journalism is dying or not. While some people feel strongly that it is and will eventually go into extinction, some remain optimistic and believes that it can survive by relying on the web. Other issues that surface are the fact that Web Journalism is on the rise, the freedom of the press is being stifled in parts of the world, and the question of whether journalists are publishing biased, balanced or objective contents in their stories. 

    Journalist Tony Rogers in his article entitled “Issues and Controversies Journalists Face” highlighted these as something that has been and still is a big problem for journalism today. According to Rogers, the newspaper is in trouble because less people are buying them, “Circulation is dropping, ad revenue is shrinking, and the industry has experienced an unprecedented wave of layoffs and cutbacks.” This is quite true and it is made even more believable by a 2018 article in the Washington Post by  Douglas McLennan and

Jack Miles “A once unimaginable scenario: No more newspapers.” The article gave significant evidence starting with the introduction of Television and Radio and how print media has been deteriorating since then. It goes on to say that it has become even worse now that the internet came about. 

The articles are adamant that the newspaper is dying in slow motion and has been doing so for two decades. To strengthen this resolve, the CEO of the New York Times in 2018 said that Print media has another ten years left before it draws its last breath. This was shown in an article from the Consumer News and Business Channel written by Kellie Ell. He said that the media has maybe a decade left due to how that sales have been in the US at the time, and nothing much has changed since. Therefore, it is safe to say that there are not many who believe in the survival of print media these days and that Journalists will eventually turn fully to online journalism and broadcast.  

The rise of web journalism has entertained the question of credibility because the internet is now available to just about anyone to call themselves journalists. Online Journalism is more difficult to sensor, as gatekeeping is tedious on the web. We see numerous opinion pieces, niche topics from bloggers as well as traditional media entities finding a spot on the internet to reach a wider audience. This makes it quite hard to distinguish between what is real and what is not, what one should consider factual or not. Even though this has been and still is aiding traditional Journalism in extending its life span, the internet has served to blur the line between the fake information and the real deal. Kimberly Lestieux’s article in her blog entitled “How Digital Journalism has Affected Traditional Journalism” brings to light that even though there is a lot of room for “Fake news” it is also beneficial to traditional Journalism, also that this is just one of the obstacles that the profession has to face as it survives, just like how it conquered Television, Radio and magazines. 

Though press freedom may not be such a big deal in countries such as the United States of America, Jamaica, and some parts of Europe, it remains under lock and key in other parts of the world. In some countries, journalists are held bound by laws, restricting them from doing the one thing that they were made for, which is publishing and broadcasting news, important facts that the public needs to know. Sarah Repucci in her article “Freedom and the Media: A Downward Spiral” gives numerous instances where Journalism is being trampled on because of their lack of freedom in various countries. However, in her research, she has found that even though press freedom is being strangled across the globe, there is hope that Journalism can make a comeback from it. On the contrary, Rogers believe that it is unlikely that this problem will be able to resolve itself in the near future. 

Rogers also brought up the topic of fair and balanced Journalism and asks the question, “How reporters can set apart their biases and really report the truth?” It is believed by many that one cannot be fully objective because everyone has their own opinion on a particular subject. But does that mean that it is impossible for Journalists to practice objectivity, and produce biased and completely balanced stories? According to Rogers, this is seen in cable television news where the same stories may be carried by different entities but are twisted in their own different ways to tell a completely different version of the same story. 

There's never been a more tumultuous time in the news business. Newspapers are drastically downsizing and facing bankruptcy or the prospect of going out of business entirely. Web journalism is on the rise and taking many forms, but there are real questions about whether it can really replace newspapers.

Press freedom, meanwhile, continues to be nonexistent or under threat in many countries around the world. There are also ongoing controversies about issues such as journalistic objectivity and fairness. It seems like a tangled mess at times, but there are many factors involved that we'll examine in detail.

With the decline of newspapers, web journalism seems to be the future of the news business. But what exactly do we mean by web journalism? And can it really replace newspapers?

In general terms, web journalism includes bloggers, citizen journalists, hyper-local news sites, and even websites for print papers. The internet certainly opened up the world for more people to write whatever they want, but that doesn't mean all of these sources have the same credibility.

Bloggers, for instance, tend to focus on a niche topic, as do citizen journalists. Because some of these writers do not have training in or necessarily care about the ethics of journalism, their personal bias can come across in what they write. This is not what we consider "journalism" per se.

Journalists are concerned with the facts, getting to the heart of the story, and have their own on-the-job lingo. Digging for answers and telling them in objective ways has long been a goal of professional reporters. Indeed, many of these professionals have found an outlet in the online world, which makes it tricky for news consumers.

Some bloggers and citizen journalists are unbiased and produce great news reports. Likewise, some professional journalists are not objective and lean one way or another on political and social issues. This burgeoning online outlet has created all types on either side. This is the larger dilemma because it is now up to readers to decide what is credible and what is not.

Facebook and Twitter have inadvertently created online political cultures of maximal tribalism and infinite personalization. Users can silo themselves in self-made realities while taking part in collective expressions of tribal outrage that often seem alarming and bewildering to outsiders. Professional journalists can’t escape the fact that their work will be performed in service of this process of political polarization. Social media personalization means that journalists essentially become content marketers publishing information for a particular niche. Journalists who understand this income model will have plenty of room for professional growth in the future.

Major social networks have been criticized for allowing fake news stories to proliferate on their platforms. According to the BBC, fake news is read most consistently by the conservatives and liberals who are most likely to vote. They tend to be more educated and earn higher salaries than the general population. In the age of fake news, the challenge for journalists is to publish content quickly without making any fact-checking mistakes.

As more people join social media networks, news journalists have an opportunity to expand their outreach and establish their reputations. The journalism jobs of the future may not be the same as they are today, but they will be available for anyone with the flexibility to adapt to a changing market.

Many companies that advertised in traditional media are now going directly to their consumers to promote their brands. The rise of “sponsored content” and “native advertising” has created a major threat to newsrooms. Group 1: Katrish Walker Racquel Mckenzie Trisanya Drummond

You may view the original article below.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/theworldpost/wp/2018/03/21/newspapers/?noredirect=on 

https://www.cnbc.com/2018/02/12/print-journalism-may-last-another-10-years-new-york-times-ceo.html 

https://www.thoughtco.com/journalism-issues-4140416 

https://blogs.mediapart.fr/kimberley-lestieux/blog/030219/how-digital-journalism-has-affected-traditional-journalism 

https://freedomhouse.org/report/freedom-media/freedom-media-2019