Generally, online news sources began to proliferate in the 1990s. In 2001, the American Journalism Review called Salon (salon.com, an American online news platform) the Internet’s “preeminent independent venue for journalism”. That was how online journalism, an innovation that has changed the face of journalism practice forever began.
Between 2003 and 2010, there was an experiment of a strictly online newspaper in Nigeria. Among the early birds in the experiment were the likes of Sahara Reporters, Gamji.com, Elombah.com and the Nigerian Voice. At that time, not many saw the online evolution in Nigeria as a major threat to the regular print until later, when their impacts became obvious in various sectors of the society.
Today, the list of online newspapers in Nigeria is endless.
When the Internet came into being, newspaper managers were confused as to the right approach towards its usage. Their first reaction was to export their entire information on the web. News consumers got accustomed to free news; hence attempts to introduce pay walls thereafter by the newspapers were resisted.
More so, the emergence of news aggregators and online advertising platforms such as Google, Twitter, Linkedin, Facebook, Yahoo, among others, robbed the newspapers of not only their readers but also revenues.
The development compelled newspaper owners to search for appropriate business models for survival. And of course, with the presence of Goggle news, Twitter, Facebook and other social networking media, the continuous changing phase of journalism becomes inevitable.
The benefits of online publications are enormous, and have indubitably shaped and changed the narrative of how we interact with the news media. Among these benefits are Timely release of reports; Free to access; Interactive and allows for immediate feedback; requires little capital to set up and requires fewer personnel to run.
Ethical issues in online journalism practice in Nigeria
Ethics are important in journalism practice because they prescribe acceptable codes of professional behavior. The birth of online media has with it an ethical challenge that calls for attention. Just as Gutenberg made everyone a printer with the invention of printing press, the advent of Internet has practically made everyone a journalist. Citizen journalism has made it a reality for everybody to be media creator, owner and actor, instead of passive user.
Among other haunting challenges bedeviling online newspapers in Nigeria are issues of accuracy, plagiarism, obscenity and of course, decency.
Reporting on Children and Minor
This is very worrisome. Ethically, a journalist is not allowed to identify, either by name or picture, or interview children under the age of 16 who are involved in cases relating to sexual offences, crimes and rituals or witchcraft, irrespective of whether they are victims, witnesses or defendants. Today, images and names of Minors are celebrated online, not minding the implications of such on the lives and future of the affected children.
Why are the ethics not complied with?
A lot of the emerging online news organizations do not have adequate journalistic training, compared to those in the traditional media. This does not in any way exonerate traditional media practitioners from culpability in unethical practices. Most of them are as guilty as the former.
For the traditional media practitioners themselves, the quality of training is also a source of worry. The institutions that train the journalists, from polytechnics to universities suffer from shortage of the basic infrastructure required to train future journalists. What about their course contents? Most of them do not address contemporary issues in the journalism profession.
Way out
Online journalism has changed the face of media practice in Nigeria. It has given a voice to Nigerians and enhanced citizens’ journalism. Whistle blowing, aimed at exposing the rot in our society has also flourished, courtesy of online journalism practice. Indeed, online journalism and the accompanying technology are blessings to the Nigerian society and have helped in consolidating Nigeria’s Democracy.
Self-regulation is a sure way forward. Online publishers must come together and agree on some Operational, ethical and professional issues. Coming together under one umbrella will be helpful, as certain guiding rules are expected to be introduced on professional practice.
Journalism institutions are trying in the introduction of courses in online journalism in their faculties and departments.
This is to allow would-be journalists to become intelligently grounded in the practice in ways that are transformative.
Online media practitioners should avail themselves the opportunity of training and retraining, especially, in the area of responsible and professional journalism. Majority of the conflicts in the country today were escalated by the media. The media owes the citizens a debt—“social responsibility”. That must therefore Propel them for regular training and retraining.
Media houses should create partnership among themselves; the news organizations that publish purely on online platforms, and the traditional ones that produce both hardcopies and publish online versions, can easily exchange stories, train staff, use the by lines of reporters, and even share offices in the areas where only one of the partners has a bureau. This could go a long way in addressing issues of plagiarism, originality and ethics.
We need a paradigm shift in the way we do journalism, the mainstream media has not sufficiently upheld the its citizens right to know what is important to the majority of them. And that is why citizens have become journalists themselves.
Ibrahim writes from Kano via [email protected] or 07032965551
