Read all about it: truth in demand

Speakers: Eszter Babarczy; Professor Frank Furedi; Ellen Hume; Eva Katona
Chair: Angus Kennedy

Internationally, journalism and the mass media have changed profoundly over recent years. Reportage and commentary are no longer the privilege of professionals, who are now challenged by 'citizen journalists' armed with mobile phones and laptops. On the world wide web, anyone can aspire to be a journalist: numerous 'public platform' websites - from NowPublic to YouTube - allow the person in the street to post his own on-the-spot reports, photos and opinions about the big issues of the day. Mainstream media struggle to respond. In Hungary, for example, leading newspapers such as HVG and Népszabadság Online have invested heavily in their online presence, creating 'blogospheres' in which their own writers, and invited guests, can comment on events. Even Rupert Murdoch, that doyen of the old newspaper world, acknowledges the next generation will have 'a different set of expectations about the kind of news they will get, including when and how they will get it, where they will get it from and who they will get it from.' News International has led the way in introducing pay-walls for its online content as newspaper sales decline.

Some enthusiastic commentators impute digital media with revolutionary powers: to vanquish old fears about corporate ownership influencing news agendas or the political bias of state-run media. Chinese activists can communicate beneath the radar of the authorities, and Iranian protesters' phone-films showed the world what was happening despite official censorship. In Central and Eastern Europe too it is hoped that political domination of local media may be counterbalanced by alternative news outlets on Web 2.0.

Should the opening up of the world of journalism to the 'masses-on-the-mouse' be celebrated? Can we hope to rely on a 'democratised' virtual coffee shop without editorial control? Are the mainstream media so obsessed with imitating the blogosphere that they risk sacrificing their own standards? By trumpeting a culture in which everybody's unedited opinions must be heard, do we risk reducing 'journalism' to a competing cacophony of undifferentiated hear-say and prejudice? Something can be true regardless of public opinion, so might attempts to ensure 'balance' actually get in the way of reporting the truth? Without journalistic ethics such as editorial control, fact-checking, and an aspiration for objectivity, how can we ensure people get the information they need to be well-informed citizens?

Category:

News & Politics

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• budapest
• battle
• satellite
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• public
• debate
• institute
• media
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• journalism
• truth