Diversifying News Media Output, One Journalist at a Time
On the coverage of war in Gaza and the future of 'professional' versus 'amateur' journalism with Hasan Patel and Deepa Parent
"We live in an age where the news cycle can change every six minutes, let alone every six hours..."
Listen to the full episode of Reporting the World featuring Hasan Patel
Hasan Patel, Deputy Director of Brand and Communications at Birmingham Newman University
Hasan Patel, Deputy Director of Brand and Communications at Birmingham Newman University
In the age of social media, news consumption continues to be shaped (and reshaped) by the emergence of new platforms and novel ways to present news.
The role that the creators of this content take is becoming heightened. Individuals now have the power to create output that can become just as popular as any other content on the internet.
Journalists are becoming social media content generalists, having to create diverse forms of content on the same piece - and freelancers and citizen journalists are benefiting from the trust that authenticity garners. This applies to journalists at legacy media companies, too - hence why TikToks like this one from Al Jazeera are generating numbers:
@aljazeeraenglish What’s happening in Rafah? #Gaza @Sandra Gathmann from #AJStartHere ♬ news, documentary, serious, depressing : L(1488971) - 8.864
We asked Hasan Patel, ex-journalist and communications specialist, and Deepa Parent, freelance journalist, about their insights into the shift of modern news media and the status of freelance journalism.
Since the dawn of the social media age, legacy media have had to compete "not just for the content, but for the voice," says Hasan Patel, communications specialist and former journalist at BBC and Al Jazeera. "People want to read, hear, see from people who look like them, sound like them, and believe like them."
This shift in news consumption parallels changes in the way content is created and distributed. Traditional journalism relied solely on one-sided communication: from the journalist, via newspaper, radio or TV news segment, to the consumer.
There was no chance of direct feedback, of resharing the original material (unless you count giving your newspaper to someone else). The main indicator of success was how many people bought your publication, or tuned in to your show.
This has completely changed with the introduction of social media platforms such as X (formerly Twitter), TikTok, Instagram and Facebook. News communication transformed from one-sided to an almost infinite possibility of connections and transfers of information, with stories reshared, commented, amended by consumers, who are becoming active participants in the spread of information.
Media organisations quickly had to adapt to the new status quo, says Patel.
"Legacy media threw their resourses into new methods and new ways and you saw a huge implosion of legacy media (so CNN, BBC, Al Jazeera) focusing a lot on digital, and using the format of digital, which meant that they changed the way they created content, but, more importantly, had a far wider reach of people to consume their content."
As media companies come to grips with this new dynamic of news consumption, they also have to deal with new creators of news content. Freelance journalism and citizen journalism are becoming more and more popular, and news content can now be created and posted by anyone - not just legacy media organisations.
"[Legacy media] are competing now with actors who aren't legacy media but may have their own following. They have their own content creating channels."
Authenticity and trust are driving factors of social media news consumption. While legacy media relies on the strength of long-built trust, individuals have the strength of authenticity on their side. There is a high risk of dissolving into the pool of voices on social media that are all claiming to be true - and both sides have to face it.
In the race of 'professional' versus 'amateur', company versus individual, it is yet to be seen whether authenticity or trust will win. However, in Patel's point of view, it's more about the intention and the content, and less about who is putting it out.
Photo by Thomas Charters on Unsplash
Photo by Thomas Charters on Unsplash
Photo by Sara Kurfeß on Unsplash
Photo by Sara Kurfeß on Unsplash
Deepa Parent, freelance journalist
Deepa Parent, freelance journalist
"Some of the best journalism has been produced by freelance journalists. If we had more democratic values in freelance journalism, in the sense of getting the right payment for the work we do, [we would see even more of that]. But sometimes you have to pay your own flight tickets, you have to pay for the fixers, get everything on your own, because you don't have legacy media on your accreditation."
Deepa Parent, independent journalist writing about conflict and human rights, is doubtful that legacy media's monopoly could be challenged. "I have seen [independent media], I have worked with it," she says. "It is doing very well. But, in comparison to big media houses, it is impossible to sustain a small media house."
Indeed, freelance journalists are finding it increasingly difficult to sustain themselves financially, and the lack of stability leads to a struggle with their mental health, too.
Despite her skepticism, Parent is strongly of the belief that independent journalism should exist, and that it produces invaluable work when it is allowed to flourish. The best example of this, she says, is the documentation of the war in Gaza, where journalists are putting their lives at risk every day to produce content for the world to see.
"We are able to see the war crimes being committed currently in Gaza, because there are digital tools to do so. None of us can go inside Gaza. And if there was no internet, there were no digital tools at our disposal, I don't think Gazan journalists would have been able to show the world what's been happening."
According to Parent, it's clear that there are advantages to social media and the advancements in digital news communication. "I think if we had the internet and the digital world and the technological advancement that we have now, we could have been successful in documenting some of the worst genocides that have happened in the past, for example the Holocaust," she says. "If we had the tools we have today, we would have been far more successful in documenting the war crimes for future generations to learn from."
However, ultimately, her sentiment towards new formats allowing for new actors on social media to create content parallels her views on small media houses: legacy media will always come out on top.
"In the past few centuries, the only thing that has really survived is journalism. Trends come and go. As much as I love TikTok, as much as I loved Orkut when I was 16, [...] it's not going to be long lasting."
