Digital Journalism, the new pamphlet of news
From YouTube to Google, social media, and even video games. ICT is present today in everything we do and how we communicate has changed extensively, going from newspapers publishing the “breaking news” the next day to radio stations to CNN’s creation in the 1980s, one of the first 24-hour channels of news (Buhl, Günther & Quandt, 2019), systematically narrowing down the “approved” time of breaking through news of high importance, immediacy is in the present considered a competitive advantage.
Today, however, not all news that reach us is “verified” news, and in today’s digital journalism, everyone can be a journalist. Even “official” news sites such as CNN can sometimes spread unverified news, perhaps triggered by Western interest. One example, to come closer to where I am at the moment, would be the news shared by Revista Semana (a right-winged newspaper in Colombia) which shared the news that China’s President had rejected a meeting with Colombia’s President, Gustavo Petro. However, it backlashed when the ambassador of China in Colombia denied such allegations, making them even change the heading later on and blame it on El Pais (a spanish newspaper).
Photo: Jorge Franganillo / Unsplash
All around us, we have news, through social media, TV, radio, and so on, influencing the way we think and perhaps even act. However, there are certain news that travel faster than others, such as classic breaking news (deaths, accidents, severe diseases of prominent personalities, or major disasters) (Buhl, Günther & Quandt, 2019). Such breaking news travels faster and has a wider spread than other news in the digital realm, pushed by social media’s influence. Moreover, such digital influence might undercut development efforts, as it might trigger violence and even human rights violations in some cases. So, the question arises as to how much of an influence social media and hence, digital journalism has on its viewers.
“This is the problem with the news today… it’s not about the news anymore, it’s about the people giving you the news.” – Bassen Youssef, interview with Pierce Morgan part 2.
Social media platforms are considered just as important by news companies, seeing them almost as indispensable. Today, differently from a few years ago, news companies think it necessary to publish news in such a way that it can spread virally (Buhl, Günther & Quandt, 2019). Digital journalism together with social media has heightened the eyes on global crises, moreover, raising the question as to who owns the story and who should be telling the story.
On October 7th something very interesting happened, western news began transmitting the attack on people in Tel Aviv, videos of people running from the Nova festival, bombings, and people hiding from missiles. However, at some point, other types of videos, let´s look at them as citizenship journalist videos, started flooding social media, this time “explaining” the conflict and the reason behind the terrorist attack on the 7th of October. What is interesting about this development of events, is the way social media behaved and has behaved during these 3 weeks. Just as Piers Morgan mentioned in one interview with Bassem Youssef (Youtube, 2023), the impact this conflict has had on social media has been unprecedented, still being a trending topic on platforms such as X after nearly 4 weeks.
Going one step further, looking at conflict and social media influence, in such times it is usual to see digital campaigns arise, prompting its viewers to donate to a fundraiser or share the campaign for others to know about it. Here, viewers from the West must be careful not to fall into the trap of the white savior, minimizing the voices of the people who are actually experiencing the violence. Sadly, social media can normalize a conflict, detaching the viewer from the suffering, and fulfilling a false image of helping by retweeting a picture or post from someone else.
Saving lives through social media
Social media is changing the way we communicate, information is more easily available today than a few years ago, and because of that more research is still needed to understand social media´s impact on ICT4D. Moreover, the scarce research made on this topic has found that social media may contribute to poverty mitigation and even affect the reduction of corruption. However, there are also negative consequences found such as spreading hatred (Walshman, 2017).
Photo:Marvin Meyer / Unsplash
Now, looking at media from the ICT4D perspective, media has proved to be a high-value communication method for spreading information about humanitarian disasters, appealing to the communication of the sympathetic, to the viewer’s emotions. Scholars today have chosen to use the term digital humanitarianism to summarise the use of digital tools within the humanitarian aid sector (Shringarpure, 2020). However, digitalizing every aspect of life can be dangerous, especially when connected to digital humanitarianism, e.g., spreading information without knowing nor asking what it really means or who the primary author is could be problematic. Digital humanitarianism campaigns are an example of problematic social media use, which can strengthen certain stereotypes, to make certain content viral.
Over the years, several campaigns have been successfully launched, gaining popularity thanks to social media. A few examples of these campaigns are Save Darfur and Kony 2012. The Save Darfur campaign even resulted in the creation of a narrative-based simulation game where the gamer was supposed to experience what every refugee was suffering in Darfur. The problem with the game was that it reinforced stereotypes of starving and helpless African children, and of the power relationship that the saviors have over the saved. In one way Saving Darfur was the first form of Digital Saviour Complex, where humanitarianism began to come too close to colonialism by reinforcing power relationships and stereotypes (Shringarpure, 2020).
Moreover, a campaign that achieved more, reaching people worldwide was Kony 2012, a campaign by invisible children. The campaign aimed at mobilizing people, specifically in the United States, to appeal to President Obama for the capture of Joseph Kony, the leader of the LRA (Lord´s Resistance Army) and save children from abduction and terrorism in Uganda. However, it didn’t have the impact it was hoped for, even though it became viral in just a few hours, reaching 100 million views on YouTube the first week. Yet, it achieved just as much criticism as popularity, perhaps being the campaign that started conversations about digital humanitarianism, the digital savior complex, and posing questions about who is behind such campaigns and if they might do more harm than good (Kurasawa, 2019).
While it is true that some campaigns throughout the years have highlighted the, let us call it, dark side of digital humanitarianism, it’s also important to acknowledge that the importance of it is to be able to distinguish between meaningful campaigns that promote help and change, instead of those that strengthen stereotypes of non-western places, even when it is done unintentionally.
Steps forward
All those platforms – Facebook, X (formerly Twitter), TikTok, Instagram, etc. – enhance digital humanitarianism, X through its retweeting feature can make a hashtag trend in the blink of an eye, TikTok is today an easy platform used by everyone for the diffusion of news or as a source to disperse information about any conflict worldwide, e.g., the Israel- Gaza conflict. Therefore, one could argue the ICT (through social media) has been changing the way information is spreading, developing, and addressing social change both positively and sometimes negatively if not used correctly.
Critical thinking and media literacy are factors to prioritize in schools, as discussed earlier, social media is a wonderfully and very effective way to spread information. Because of that, it is easy to widely spread and reinforce stereotypes of non-western countries, which can cause further damage. Moreover, and more specifically, organizations and even citizens spreading information must be careful not to fall into the Digital Saviour Complex, where the savior is fulfilling its sentimental narcissism, boosting companies benefiting from such “humanitarian” campaigns or overall information.
As with Kony 2012, the Israel-Gaza conflict, Saving Darfur, and so on, within the humanitarian field, observing specifically the humanitarian communication area, there are always talks about listening to the voices of the people. However, we have failed repetitively to achieve this, perhaps social media could be the gateway to understand this interaction better and facilitate the directly involved to speak their minds. One example that I believe is very appealing and which I have mentioned in my previous post, is the YouTube video where Egypt´s Rahma Zein confronted CNN’s reporter Clarissa Ward telling her that their voice wasn’t being heard and the Western media coverage had been one-sided (CNN, 2023).
More generally, further research into social media influence within the ICT4D is needed to understand the possible outcomes for the target population. Nevertheless, media is a source to be careful with, as discussed before, it has a dark side triggering violence and inciting human rights violations. It is therefore important to be cautious of ICT by analyzing and being critical of any information gathered through social media. Assuming there are only positive outcomes from ICT would mean to ignore the danger of social media. For example, following the events in Gaza and Israel, islamophobic and antisemitic content on social media has increased.
I argue that mixing solutions journalism with citizen journalism can help tackle social issues by lifting otherwise oppressed voices. Social media is seen as the driving force for the widespread of Solutions Journalism, in 2013 e.g., 73% of adults had a social network profile, and over 42% used multiple social network platforms (Lowes and Ferguson, 2021). Together with the use of social media, Solutions Journalism can raise the voice of the oppressed to lift their concerns and solutions to achieve social change.
Is digital humanitarianism turning important issues into banal posts of likes and retweets? Turning it into a superficial solidarity façade?
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Final thoughts and reflections
Writing a blog is definitely something I never thought I would do. Having that in mind, I’ve enjoyed this couple of months where together with my fellow students we have been working to complete and fill this blog with interesting content.
This group work taught me the importance of leadership, cooperation, and flexibility. Consequently, I would like to give all my gratitude to my fellow students, Eleonor, Marie, and Malan who stepped up to finish this project together even though everyone is busy with their own work life. Even though we suffered a setback when one group member left the group at the beginning of the project, I believe we managed to finish this blog thanks to the involvement and hard work of every group member.
In terms of the technical areas I’ve developed, the creation of a blog and its contents are definitely one of them, for example, I learned how to navigate WordPress to best fit the content of the blog. As I want to pursue a career in communication for development this particular project, with all that it implies. boosted my professional knowledge, definitely giving me tools for future careers. I’ve always been interested in development questions and throughout the course and this group work, my overall knowledge has improved in areas of communication I never thought would be connected to developmental processes.
Overall, I’ve enjoyed this group work, I believe it was an excellent opportunity to learn from each other and accomplish the creation of this blog in such a short time.
Reference:
Florian Buhl, Elisabeth Günther & Thorsten Quandt (2019) Bad News Travels Fastest: A Computational Approach to Predictors of Immediacy in Digital Journalism Ecosystems, Digital Journalism, 7:7, 910-931, DOI: 10.1080/21670811.2019.1631706
Revista Semana. (1 October 2023). Según El País, de España, el mandatario de China, Xi Jinping, le “vuelve a hacer el feo” al presidente Petro en el tema del metro; esto mando a decir. https://www.semana.com/mundo/articulo/el-mandatario-de-china-xi-jinping-le-vuelve-a-hacer-el-feo-al-presidente-petro-en-el-tema-del-metro-esto-mando-a-decir/202358/
Piers Morgan Uncensored. Piers Morgan vs Bassem Youssef Round 2 | Two-Hour Special Interview (1 November 2023) YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rqjO5Z9Lt_M
Geoff Walsham (2017) ICT4D research: reflections on history and future agenda, Information Technology for Development, 23:1, 18-41, DOI: 10.1080/02681102.2016.1246406
Bhakti Shringarpure (2020) Africa and the Digital Savior Complex, Journal of African Cultural Studies, 32:2, 178-194, DOI: 10.1080/13696815.2018.1555749
Kurasawa, F. (2019). On humanitarian virality: Kony 2012, or, the rise and fall of a pictorial artifact in the digital age. Visual Communication, 18(3), 399-423. https://doi-org.proxy.mau.se/10.1177/1470357219851807
CNN. (2023). See what it looks like at Egypt-Gaza crossing where anger is growing. https://edition.cnn.com/videos/world/2023/10/20/rafah-crossing-egypt-gaza-ward-lead-vpx.cnn
Lowes, M., & Ferguson, S. D. (2021). Solutions Journalism: Strategies for Effecting and Managing Change. Canadian Journal of Media Studies, 17(1), 60-85.