Ask Sarah 1 — The New Media
Author(s): Scott Douglas Jacobsen
Publication (Outlet/Website): The Good Men Project
Publication Date (yyyy/mm/dd): 2018/10/27
Sarah Mills is a Managing Editor and Writer at Conatus News, as well as a writer at Areo Magazine, Huffington Post, Litro Magazine, and Culture Project. We have been colleagues for well over a year now. I reached out about garnering some intel, some insider information, on writing and editing within the new media, especially as a journalist. Here we talk about the new media and navigation of the modern terrain.
Mills is a writer with a postgraduate degree in creative writing. The world of writing and journalism in the 21st century comes with its own set of unique challenges and advantages. While the dissemination of news has become easier, there is much potential for misinformation.
The new online media and communications technologies create a problem. In that, the dissemination of news becomes easier but the potential for misinformation and disinformation by non-journalists becomes a problem too.
When I asked Mills about the unique set of challenges for journalists, she said, “One of the biggest challenges is the sheer number of outlets vying for public attention–and receiving it. In the digital era, we’ve seen countless outlets spring up to challenge traditional media, with varying results.”
Mills expressed concern over the rise of click-bait and unethical journalism. That is, the consumer may not be critically thinking, may be prone to acceptance of emotional appeals and image-based content, and the publication or disseminator may be unbounded by codes of ethics.
“They use biased or charged language and lie by omission, and their stories are picked up and shared across social media by influencers,” Mills explained, “With the rise of citizen journalism in the digital era, anyone can go to an event, upload a video, and see it go viral. This is not altogether a bad thing, depending on who is holding the camera and what his or her intentions are.”
However, the era of mass skepticism seeps into traditional, often legitimate sources of news information. Skepticism, which is good, becomes a generalized (almost) cynicism about news sources.
Mills recommended, “Writers and editors must be diligent to always trace back sources, trace back the money, and counter the spread of misinformation when the epithet of ‘fake news’ is attributed merely to sources at odds with the perspective of the accuser.”
Trends in general media show a rapid decline in traditional, printed mediums and a significant shift toward online media outlets.
“Some outlets have responded by putting up paywalls and employing ads. Others have yielded to the temptation of the clickbait, which invites misreading and encourages sharing by social media users, again, often without ever having read the article in its entirety,” Mills stated.
The processing of writing, almost always, comes with editing. The online environment can make this, in turn, easier with the ability to work around the world in spite of geographic, travel, and financial limitations otherwise.
“At the click of a button and from the comfort of my own home, I can contact people for interviews, I can conduct background checks on them, I can network with colleagues, I can reach people in war zones and they can video chat live with me from the scene,” Mills concluded, “It’s grand and humbling to be living in this time, despite the challenges. You only need a reliable Wi-Fi connection and you can have the world at your fingertips.”
–One can find similar statements in other documents, conventions, declarations and so on, with the subsequent statements of equality or women’s rights:
- The Universal Declaration of Human Rights in the Preamble, Article 16, and Article 25(2).
- Convention Against Discrimination in Education (1960) in Article 1.
- The International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (1966) in Article 3, Article 7, and Article 13.
- International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (1966).
- Convention on the Elimination of all Forms of Discrimination Against Women (1979).
- Convention against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment (1984).
- The Declaration on the Elimination of Discrimination Against Women (1993).
- Beijing Declaration(1995).
- United Nations Security Council Resolution 1325 (2000).
- Protocol to Prevent, Suppress and Punish Trafficking in Persons, especially Women and Children (2000).
- The Protocol to the African Charter on Human and Peoples’ Rights on the Rights of Women in Africa or the “Maputo Protocol” (2003).
- Council of Europe Convention on preventing and combating violence against women and domestic violence or the Istanbul Convention (2011) Article 38 and Article 39.
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