From the Consumptive to the Productive

Journalism is at a crossroads. Despite the ever-increasing array of sources to better understand current events from multiple perspectives, the way we view news has created new challenges for media outlets, independent producers and consumers of media alike. Over the last decade, we have witnessed a dramatic decline in the number of people obtaining their news from old-fashioned “newspapers,” with a rapid increase in the number of people obtaining their news from the Internet and the vast majority still relying on television. As advertisers took notice and news outlets began downsizing their actual news-gathering force in search of a lucrative way to expand their viewing markets, the focus shifted to “if-it-bleeds-it-leads” producing, partisan and inflammatory editorializing, “soft” news, info-tainment and an increasing reliance on growing social media powerhouses Facebook and Twitter for content to flesh out poorly-researched stories. News outlets bounced in tandem from crisis to crisis, creating a few along the way, with terrifying names like Snowmageddon and Carpocalypse, and claimed “fatigue” on the part of their viewers as the reason that they scaled back more in-depth coverage of ongoing social and humanitarian issues. As always, fear of potentialities, rather than naked realities, seemed to be the best sales package. Yet as more people began paying attention to the diversity of voices in the media and chiming in with their own opinions, few seemed to notice that the profession of reporting itself was imperiled, nor that they had any power to do something about it. According to Reporters Without Borders, 147 journalists are currently imprisoned worldwide, and 35 journalists have been killed while reporting on a story this year alone. A new statistic, the number of “netizens” imprisoned, such as bloggers and online activists, stands at 124. The Committee to Protect Journalists states that 869 journalists have been killed in the past two decades, and a majority killed with complete impunity. While more than a sixth of those deaths occurred during the wars in Iraq, that the deaths of journalists reporting on politics and corruption account for half of the fatalities should give people plenty of pause. When Wikileaks published its incendiary “Collateral Murder” video in April 2010, many were horrified at the impunity that the US military had when journalists from Reuters and other civilians were gunned down by an Apache helicopter, and lauded the organization for shining light on the truth. Now, as the organization’s founder faces charges of espionage over its release of diplomatic cables, few people protest or are even aware of the role banks, credit card companies and mainstream news outlets have played in demonizing the organization and blocking its ability to fundraise, ostensibly at the behest of the US government. During the “Green Revolution” in Iran, and the more recent “Arab Spring,” where mainstream and opposition news journalists were threatened, arrested or blocked from reporting acts of civil disobedience against authoritarian regimes, the for-profit media consistently praised the role that Twitter and Facebook users played in both circumventing state censorship, organizing protests and reporting on events in real time. Yet governments have quickly become just as “hip” to the ability to post on social networks, masquerading as regime supporters or instigators of violence, to monitor them to determine locations of protesters or to carry out surveillance on organizers, or even to preemptively shut them down. In spite of this evolution in the way people and governments carry out resistance and reactionism in the digital age, it remains apparent that for-profit news media and social networks leave a lot to be desired when it comes to in-depth reporting from the people who live the day-to-day realities of crisis, conflict and human struggle. In Tunisia and Egypt, supposedly victorious revolutions in the Arab Spring, journalists still face violent repression, censorship and prosecution by the new regimes, and citizens still turn out in the streets looking for a fulfillment of the promise of change. So after the major protests have been pacified, whether through regime change or violent suppression, and humanitarian crises have abated somewhat, what is it that keeps the digital eye from wandering, the international attention from waning? It can only be truthful, well-researched reporting in the common interest, which is transparent about its sources as well as its goals. Good old-fashioned journalism. More than ever, people have the ability to seek out the news that is relevant to them, from the places they live in, and more than ever, people have the ability to record and publicly comment on their milieu. Also, more than ever, advertisers are discovering increasingly effective ways to insert themselves into the field of vision, with social networks like Facebook targeting “smart” ads based on user content and interests and Twitter launching "Promoted tweets". Meanwhile, Google aims for full spectrum dominance as it rolls out Google Plus, a site that purports to give a user more control over the content it shares with certain groups, but keeps a public profile, and features a "Social Search" of a user's connections and content "+1'd" -- recommended by others. Advertisements themselves can be +1'd, potentially blending in with results of a users' personal connections. As a result of these advances, it is becoming increasingly difficult to filter and trust the content that faces us while remaining engaged, and moreover, many countries that often exist in a state of economic or political crisis are left behind as the information age progresses. A new kind of journalism is therefore necessary, one that is powered not through advertising, but through an active engagement with the viewer who has the chance and motivation to become a collaborator and producer as well. A journalism is needed that shifts away from the consumptive to the productive, and expands to every locale possible. The ultimate goal of journalism is not merely good storytelling, but rather a kind of virtual reality, an unfiltered lens on reality where people can truly understand a problem, investigate it further and seek out its solution. We need ways to regain our trust in the media we watch, and we need many more producers involved in the process. Those potential media-makers need to be empowered with the tools and training to carry out investigative journalism, and need a platform for free expression, where the influence of advertisers and trendsetters carry no weight and cannot muddy the message, and where due scrutiny falls upon those who would try to subvert the truth. By creating and providing support for dogit.org, Watchdog International seeks to foster the advancement of independent, non-corporate journalism and create new opportunities for aspiring journalists to learn and collaborate, as well as advocate for the rights and freedom of those facing repression and censorship. Our users deserve a social network that helps connect us with humanity and serves the common interest, not corporate interests. We invite you to join our network and publish media on your own terms. We invite you to write about what you know, the places you come from, and the stories that deserve a closer look than the mainstream media has the attention span for. Positive or negative, stories must be wholly grounded in facts. We invite you to question other sources and report biases, omissions and inaccuracies that do a disservice to the truth. The world is watching, and is ready for a change. dogit.org