NOV 2 — The prophets say digital media technology and converging platforms re-defines the future of journalism. The press will be eventually free in the future. No totalitarian regime can stop this. But the future is deeply rooted in the past of what defines good journalism.

The form and way we do journalism may be different but the substance remains the same. In the past we may use the pen and today we may use an android device. This begs the question — what is journalism?

Kovach and Rosenstiel in the opening chapter of their book The Elements of Journalism say that to some journalism is for citizenship while for others it is for democracy.

“The principles and purpose of journalism are defined by something more basic: the function news plays in the lives of people,” they point out.

“Every journalist from the newsroom to the boardroom must have a personal sense of ethics and responsibility — a moral compass. What’s more, they have a responsibility to voice their personal conscience out loud and allow others around them to do so as well.”

The word ethics comes from the Greek word “ethos”, which refers to character and integrity. So the future of journalism lies in this and not in technology nor media convergence. Henry Jenkins in his 2006 book Convergence Culture, Where Old and New Media Collide, describes it thus: “The flow of content across multiple media platforms, the cooperation between multiple media industries, and the migratory behaviour of media audiences.”

Such convergence culture does not address the ethical framework that defines journalism. Media convergence is also said to be part of a participatory culture. This is because the average people can now access their interests on many types of media, they can also have more of a say. This is surely the democratisation of media — a new openness, a new freedom.

But this may be merely illusory. In the convergence culture, ownership of converged media and technology platforms is highly concentrated in the hands of a few to the extent that such predatory capitalist enterprises begin to pose a danger to freedom of the press and indeed democracy itself. The dangers they pose may even be more threatening than that of state censorship. They may end up becoming the new tyranny by a few that may be more evil than the tyranny of the state that they have come to displace.

It has been said the central purpose of journalism is to tell the truth so that people will have the information they need to be sovereign. The first obligation of journalism is to truth. Only the truth can set us free.

The pursuit of truth is not to be sacrificed at the altar of convergence culture where the soul of the journalist is traded on a willing-seller-willing-buyer basis or to the highest bidder.

The late Pope John Paul II (2002) highlighted: “With its vast and direct influence on public opinion, journalism cannot be guided only by economic forces, profit, and special interest. It must instead be felt as a mission in a certain sense sacred, carried out in the knowledge that the powerful means of communication have been entrusted to you for the good of all.”

Therefore, as Kovach and Rosenstiel point out, journalists have an obligation to exercise their personal conscience. They quote Linda Foley, president of the (US) Newspaper Guild, as saying: “The ability of journalists to exercise conscience is much more important than anything they believe or any beliefs they bring to their job… There has be a culture in newsrooms that allows a journalist to have a free and open discussion.”

Exercising conscience is easier said than done, whether one is a journalist in Washington, Beijing, Jakarta or Kuala Lumpur. We cannot afford to leave our conscience outside the doors of our newsrooms. This is because from this principle of individual conscience, other values of journalism flow — accuracy, a commitment to our readers and communities and ultimately to a free, ethical and responsible press. This is what the future of journalism is about — journalism with a conscience.

(Paper presented at the International Conference of Television Journalists, Surabaya, 30 October-1 November 2013.)

* This is the personal opinion of the writer and does not necessarily represent the views of The Malay Mail Online.