Amateurs can damage the media

Oct 9 2008 by Lewis Harrison, The Journal

AS the boundaries between professional and amateur journalism continue to blur, are news organisations at risk of losing the trust of their audience?

Late last week, US-based CNN published an online article that incorrectly claimed Apple’s boss Steve Jobs had been taken to hospital, suffering from a heart attack.

It said: “Steve Jobs was rushed to the ER just a few hours ago after suffering from a major heart attack. I have an insider who tells me that paramedics were called after Steve claimed to be suffering from severe chest pains and shortness of breath.

“My source has opted to remain anonymous, but he is quite reliable. I haven’t seen anything about this anywhere else yet, and as of right now, I have no further information, so I thought this would be a good place to start.”

Following the report, Apple’s shares fell by as much as 5.4%, before rebounding after the technology firm denied the report-slash-unfounded- rumour.

The article was published on a CNN-backed website, carrying some CNN branding, and was written not by a professional reporter, but by an amateur – or citizen – journalist.

I’ve nothing against web users contributing content of a news-type nature to websites, newspapers and TV shows produced by news organisations.

Some of the most compelling photos, videos and reports of events such as the London bombings came from non-professionals who happened to be first on the scene.

What’s more, by reading blogs, comments, Tweets, videos and other user-generated content it’s now possible to get a more in-depth and nuanced view of a news event than what you’d be able to garner from a three-minute spot on the six o’clock news.

Nevertheless, news organisations must tread very carefully.

In this web-dominated world we are knee-deep in information – much of it half-truth, rumour or outright falsehood. What that means is that trust is key.

Organisations such as CNN have a longstanding reputation of providing reliable, objective reports. As a result they are trusted and valued by readers.

But if they publish or reference inaccurate reports written by amateurs, even on a dedicated citizen journalist website, they risk losing that trust, that seal of reliability. And if they lose that, do they not also lose their value?

Lewis Harrison is PR & Communications Manager at Codeworks, a North East-based centre for digital innovation.