THE COMPUTER MOUSE SHOULD BE THE 1ST WEAPON AGAINST UNSCRUPULOUS NEWS SITES
Grisha Balasanyan
16:58, November 8, 2013
My neighbor, 75 year-old grandpa Sourik, is pretty active, politically.
He’s attended almost all of the opposition demonstrations and says
he’s become aware of developments in the country by participating in
various protests.
During the current relatively “peaceful period”, Sourik only source
of news is Armenian TV. But he’s not satisfied with the limited
programming it offers.
Every two days, grandpa Sourik would come to our home with the names
of news sites written on a piece of paper. He wanted me to read him
the opinions of the internet press.
But I stopped serving as the press spokesman for Sourik about one month
ago. When he visited me the last time, with his piece of paper in hand,
and asked that I open his favorite site, a semi-nude picture of Kim
Kardashian popped out on the first page. On the next website, Sourik
said he read news that wasn’t true; just a pack of malicious gossip.
“And here I was thinking that they operated normally. They are either
in need of sex or either gossip like a group of old women. To be a
journalist back in the Soviet era was an honor. Now, they have turned
into naggers. Back then we would impatiently wait for the postman
to arrive with the newspapers for us to read. I used to subscribe
to five papers and magazines. The ones I didn’t subscribe to I would
pick up from my neighbors. Nowadays, young kids just out of diapers
claim to be reporters, running from interview to interview with tape
recorders in hand,” Sourik exclaimed and left.
There are real reasons for Sourik to complain. It’s true, the internet
press has benefitted the media field, ensuring greater diversity and
serving as an alternative platform for speech and opinion, in contrast
to the TV under state control and the newspapers with small print runs,
which have little impact on public opinion.
However, the internet press has intensified the issue of media
self-regulation. A number of ethical questions (the use of anonymous
sources, disinformation, or the publication of unverified news and
even outright lies) have been given much greater attention. Such
methods have become the accepted work ethic at certain news sites.
These daily growing media outlets had a need for new staff and
filled the void with young people who were untrained and unfamiliar
with professional standards. As a result, serious analytical and
investigative journalism almost disappeared. What rose instead was
a demand for easily digestible news. On the other hand, cutthroat
completion amongst internet media sources for a shrinking audience
led to a serious fall in quality, a devaluation of professionalism.
Today, yellow journalism dominated the internet press. Almost
every other site fills the need to lift Facebook posts of well-known
individuals and reprint them on their sites, thus ensuring the desired
number of “likes”. It was due to this race that, for example, that
during the course of one minute on July 30 of this year, the internet
was swamped with the false news that prominent humorist and broadcaster
Mark Saghatelyan had died after being rushed to hospital in critical
condition. Minutes later, the news had been removed from the news
sites, but none felt the need to apologize to their readers for
publishing the unverified and undignified report in the first place.
The devaluation of professionalism also benefits certain political
circles that obtain or create news sites for propaganda purposes –
by providing one-sided news and by stoking political intrigue. In the
struggle against the political opposition or competition, we see the
more frequent use of news websites. As a consequence, reporters have
become tools to be exploited and the media community is being split
apart. And this can only benefit the powers that be. The fact that
oligarch/MP Samvel Aleksanyan recently expressed a desire to open a
news site and strike back at his reporter naysayers, proves our point.
It is difficult to imagine how many such “beaten” reporters would
express a desire to work for Tsarukyan.
So the following questions remain:
How to regulate the media field in Armenia? How to raise the level
of professional of internet reporters? How to spur journalism that
adheres to ethical norms?
These questions are of concern not only to responsible reporters and
editors, to media analysts and experts, but also to readers who have
grown tired of low quality news reporting
How to overcome the problems now faced by the internet press in
Armenia?
The principle of free speech in news reporting is gradually turning
into a free for all, where concepts of responsibility, ethics and
morality are being disfigured under the rubric of Article 10 of the
European Convention of Human Rights:
“Everyone has the right to freedom of expression. This right shall
include freedom to hold opinions and to receive and impart information
and ideas without interference by public authority and regardless of
frontiers. This Article shall not prevent States from requiring the
licensing of broadcasting, television or cinema enterprises.”
In several precedent setting decisions, the European Court of Human
Rights has often stated that freedom of expression is a pivotal
pillar of a democratic society and that its advancement, as well as
individual expression of all, a fundamental prerequisite. The right
to freedom of expression not only guarantees the freedom of the press
to inform the public, but also the right of the public to be informed
in a responsible fashion.
Specialists say that it is easy today to create a news site. It’s
not an expensive proposition. Naturally, this is the case if we are
merely talking about having a website. It takes around $200 to open
a site in WordPress, $10 monthly for the hosting, and $10 annually
for the domain name.
Neither is greeting content all that expensive. You can get two
students to work for next to nothing if they agree to lifting Facebook
and other social web posts of prominent individuals and copy pasting
articles from other sites without due credit. Clearly, for serious
news sites, creating a site is a serious problem as well as the
financial challenges of getting and keeping a quality staff.
In an interview with Hetq, media analyst Samvel Martirosyan said
that the issue of regulating the sector is complex as it demands
solutions involving the engagement of the media community, educational
institutions and the consumer.
The public needs to be more demanding; otherwise it’s all being
read. The public must be mature enough to remove any site that spreads
disinformation from its reading list. The press community must go the
route of self-regulation, a process that has started to some small
degree. Yellow journalism must be separated from the responsible
media. All must not be given the same credit rating,” says Martirosyan.
For example, he says that the Sun British tabloid isn’t rated equally
with The Guardian.
Martirosyan notes that if we follow the instincts of the general
public, then naturally, only sex and violence are needed in the press.
But the problem is that the responsible press must address the public
consciousness.
“Since the field of competition has developed incorrectly in Armenia,
the yellow and normal press has been sandwiched together with the same
credit rating. Naturally, in order to compete successfully, the normal
press becomes yellow as well. There must be a separation. Throughout
the world, the yellow press is more popular. It’s just that it operates
in another field,” he added.
The expert finds the competition to gather “likes” as normal, since
it shapes an audience. The problem arises when “likes” are gathered
by deceiving and disgusting readers.
Anna Israyelyan, the editor of the online Aravot news site, doesn’t
agree with the claim that serious analytical and investigative
journalism has almost disappeared and that a demand for easily
digestible news has arisen.
She says that serious journalism has its readers and so too does
the easy, syrupy stuff. The two don’t cross paths or get in the
other’s way. It’s a whole other question that news sites seeking to
disseminate serious news must slightly review the way they work. Such
sites shouldn’t wait for advertisers to line up outside their door
after publishing a good article.
Anna Israyelyan says that we have also have a lot of stuff to borrow
from the websites providing the easily digestible news, in terms of
integrating with social networks and disseminating original material.
“And I’m not even talking of the necessity to study the needs of the
reader audience. Perhaps we must contact market analysts, in order to
regulate the activities of sites in such a way to make it as easy as
possible to work with search systems/ As regards the professionalism
of internet reporters, I don’t think that the situation is all that
different now than in the past. There have always been more reporters
who don’t spend much time and effort on an article than those that do.
I mean the ones who always present a second opinion,” notes Israyelyan.
The Aravot editor believes that the only way to raise the professional
level of inexperienced reporters is to fill in the gaps by sending
them to on the job training courses and seminars. She confesses
that in the competitive rush to publish breaking stories, quality
and precision suffer as a result. Israyelyan notes that this is a
worldwide problem not unique to Armenia.
“Regarding the resolution of plagiarism and other ethical issues,
I have long ago given up any hope that the answer will come from
self-regulation measures. They do not work and experience has shown
they aren’t effective. The only solution is to financially penalize
those who violate copyright laws. Luckily, such an opportunity now
exists with the recent passage of a parliamentary bill,” Israyelyan
added.
Media specialist Mesrop Harutyunyan proposes a different solution.
Just like viewers use the remote control to change the TV channels
of those broadcasting tasteless programming, so too must the computer
mouse be the first weapon against unscrupulous internet news sites.
That’s to say that if readers don’t visit these sites they will wither
and die off.
“It’s better to educate and reeducate new reporters; by constantly
working with them and informing them regarding all possible manners
of self-regulation. This starts with educating them as to the rules
of ethics and explaining the need for reprimand and other means when
these rules are violated,” added Harutyunyan.
Photo: A bundle of Soviet newspapers sent to Grandpa Sourik
http://hetq.am/eng/news/30560/the-computer-mouse-should-be-the-1st-weapon-against-unscrupulous-news-sites.html