John Matovu Aminah Zawedde Das Pamela and Herbert Ruhunde.pdf

52 Strengthening the Role of ICT in Development Volume VIII
Journalism
Journalism involves the investigation and reporting of events, trends and issues to
a large audience.
There seems to be consensus among scholars in the fi eld of journalism studies
that what typifi es more or less universal similarities in journalism can be defi ned
as a shared occupational ideology among news workers which functions to selflegitimize
their position in society.
Deuze [2007] suggests that journalists identify themselves more easily with the
profession of journalism than for example with the medium or media company
that employs them. Key characteristics of this professional self-defi nition can be
summarized as a number of discursively constructed ideal-typical values.
Golding and Elliott [1979]; Merritt [1995]; and more recently Kovach and
Rosenstiel [2001] describe these as:
• Public service: journalists provide a public service (as watchdogs or
‘newshounds’, active collectors and disseminators of information);
• Objectivity: journalists are impartial, neutral, objective, fair and (thus)
credible;
• Autonomy: journalists must be autonomous, free and independent in their
work;
• Immediacy: journalists have a sense of immediacy, actuality and speed
(inherent in the concept of ‘news’);
• Ethics: journalists have a sense of ethics, validity and legitimacy.
It is important to note here that these values can be attributed to other professions or
social systems as well, and that these values are sometimes inevitably inconsistent or
contradictory. To journalists this generally does not seem to be a problem, as they
integrate such values into their debates and evaluations of the character and quality
of journalism. In doing so, journalism continuously reinvents itself – regularly
revisiting similar debates (for example on commercialization, bureaucratization,
‘new’ media technologies, seeking audiences, and concentration of ownership)
where ideological values can be deployed to sustain operational closure, keeping
outside forces at bay. It is from this same premise that the discourse about citizen
journalism emerges.
Citizen Journalism:
Citizen journalism is the concept of members of the public playing an active role
in the process of collecting, reporting, analyzing and disseminating news and
information (it is also known as “public”, “participatory”, democratic or “street
journalism”)
Citizen journalism is one of the hottest buzzwords in the news business these
days. Many news executives are probably thinking about implementing some sort
of citizen-journalism initiative; a small but growing number have already done so.