Social Media Journalism

Recently, with the advent of prospective journalists in the social media, real journalism has taken a backstage. Gone are the days, when you were supposed to complete a course in mass communications/journalism and complete some intense internship at some reputed media houses to consider yourself worthy of being called a journalist. Now days, you just need a smart phone, internet connection and a social media handle to fit into the shoes of a journalist. Its pertinent to mention here that most of these SM journalists are freelancers and can swing in any direction at any point of time.

In one way or other, it’s not bad. I have many intellectual friends in social media, who are quite vocal in their reporting of different incidents and activities. Some of them do look like being a bit biased towards certain ideologies; but that’s acceptable. Everyone is inclined towards certain ideology in their life. The positive aspect of advent of this new breed of journalists is that the people managing the systems are more careful now. They are now open to public scrutiny and well aware of the public sentiments.

But, the negative aspect is that of public trolling of almost everyone. Anyone can now question anything to anyone; even without getting into the details of the matter. The problem turns into acute when reporting of any incident becomes only criticism of the system, without suggesting steps for reforms. The very reason for such reporting is to criticize the system or the people working under it, not to highlight on the probable solutions.

The advantage and positive points of this SM journalism are getting overshadowed by the negativity spread by these trolls. The actual matters are taking a backstage with people fighting over political ideology, thus killing the very essence of social media reporting; which in all probability, is the future of journalism.