Accuracy makes the difference in journalism
THE promise of accuracy is what separates professional journalists from citizen journalists and others active on social media.
Dr Emad Omar, a former Reuters correspondent and editor, was addressing a programme for young African journalists hosted by the African Union of Journalists in Cairo, just hours before speculation of a coup in Zimbabwe, where many of the points he made played out on Twitter yesterday.
Between “is there/isn’t there a coup” tweets, memes, racist comments and scaremongering were official statements, such as from Zanu-PF, and the calm voices of seasoned journalists giving updates of information that had been confirmed by two or more sources.
Omar said that while citizen journalism –where citizens report on what they observe – was extremely useful, not all lay people subscribed to the ethics of journalism as could be seen on social media platforms.
He cited a number of cases of biased news reporting and “news” which turned out to be fake to highlight the importance of fact-checking and seeking multiple sources for a news story.
During elections in Kenya, for example, nine out of 10 voters claimed to have experienced fake news, which could potentially have influenced them, he said.
He spoke about scaremongering headlines such as “Ebola is coming”, announced on the front page of a US news magazine, or “news” on social media about a massacre in South Sudan, featuring shocking images from another past conflicts as “proof”.
Another example was the misrepresentation of statistics, such as the statement that “every 26 seconds a woman gets raped in South Africa” and warned that in the time of digital technology, non-truths and stereotypes travelled around the world rapidly.
Speaking of the power of images, and using the example of a video in which a large bird of prey appears to swoop in a park and raise a small child into the air, he said people assume what they see to be true, and share it with others.
This happened in South Africa, when photographs of the old flag circulated following protests by farmers, but these were not taken during the event, they were a few years old.
Omar extended his caution to hate speech and other divisive content propagated on social media.
Journalists should take care to ensure they are the voice of objectivity, that is believable and fair to all sides of a story, he said.
And, while there may be pressure to be quick in getting the news out, it was important to be accurate and ethical.
Social media is a tool and citizen journalism could be invaluable, especially as one could not be in every place or situation, but true journalism could not be replaced in the digital age.
In the time of the digital age, non-truths get around the world rapidly