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Lecture on Social Journalism
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Sujan
5:25
"We have been the advocates for fairness, equality and accuracy, for people in a sense," he says.
He emphasises: "We have to maintain the standards."
5:30
He says, "We are questioning the objectivity."
He adds that have to learn to cover a community you are not part of."
5:32
Goes on to mention an example of a survey which found that when people who voted for Trump and those who didn't were put in a room,  they started fighting after some days.
He ponders over the current situation: “They need proper facts and stats to talk about, rather than fighting without real facts.”
5:33
He rues that though we are all having a conversation, but it is a flawed one without facts.
He says that the journalists need to collaborate to come up with new methods to find about these communities.
He exemplifies his point with the case of a community of COVID patients who used social media, and now that community has 14k members.
He considers that sharing needs help in bringing in the experts.
5:34
He shares his grand vision: "A community built around information and facts".
"It took a century for us to get to movable print from when Gutenberg invented printing press.
There is a long stretch of development in front of us, in terms of the internet," he says.
5:36
5:39
"It's early days for the internet
We have a lot to learn, both good and bad, and we are just beginning...the economics of newspaper have changed and newspapers are going to die, but up from the ashes will come up new things," he adds.
5:40
"We have newsletters, podcasts, Facebook groups, WhatsApp, we can write books, we can use the comic book and all kinds of methods to bring journalism to communities."
5:41
ACJ students are invited to ask their questions.
Khadija asks Jarvis:“Students are asked to treat people as sources, but you touched upon the importance of qualitative listening. Should journalists dismiss the idea of treating people as just sources? Where do we draw the line in between both?”
Jarvis replies, “I'm grappling with that with my students. The problem with speaking with sources is that we try and squeeze the information to make news out of it.”
5:43
He shares: "I started talking to a colleague of mine, about what's the line between the subject, the source, the freelancer and the story teller."
5:44
He ponders, "We don't take their story, we help them tell their own story. In that case, who is the writer?"
He explains, "It changes the relationship completely." He adds, "We need to reimagine what our role is with our communities."
5:45
Abhirami asks: "You mentioned we should show all sides in news coverage. Karl Popper giving a paradox said, 'to practice tolerance, one must be intolerant first.'". Does this mean that unacceptable opinions should be expressed in, our reporting?
5:46
5:47
Jarvis answers, "So after the American election when trump was elected, I talked to my students about empathy. The black students said they can't empathize with someone who has never done anything good to them."
5:48
"I said, you are right as a person and as a part of the community. But as a journalist, you aren't.
You have report what is happening, but you do have to report with respect to the context and history," he adds.
5:49
Abhirami questions, "You spoke about objectivity; one must be accurate, as much as possible while reporting the experiences of the community. If we are being objective by pointing out the flaws of the community to which they belong, won't that mean they are giving up the ethical values of loyalty when it comes to the community?"
Jarvis replies that the reason we can't say that we have objectivity, is because that would imply that we are saying that we don't have views.
5:50
He ruminates the question of who one is loyal to. He says, "I know a reporter; he told about covering a financial scandal. When he was reporting, he knew that he cared about them, about the community."
5:51
Jarvis elaborates on that reporter's dilemma and asks if the reporter shouldn't report it because he cared.
5:52
He replies: "But he did, because he had to tell them that they were investing in a scam, and were losing their money."
5:54
Q: Can we still believe in an ideology and point out at the same time, appreciate the good policies in an opposing ideology? Does that make our journalism objective or our ideology based on criticism?
5:55
Jarvis answers, "We have to respect people lives, culture and privacy. But people are generous, they'll usually answer."
Another student asks, "What do you think about what cancel culture has done?"
Jarvis replies with an example, "Years ago when I was young, men used to call women 'girls', which is unacceptable and offensive now. Society has evolved. But people might say, this is stealing our freedom."
5:56
Jarvis says: "There were people with microphones telling their stories but now, new people have new microphones, but that doesn't cancel others."
5:57
"I don't believe in 'cancel culture,''' he exclaims.
5:59
Khadija asks, "It speaks about social media creating echo chambers or silos of opinion, how do we persuade them to come out of echo chambers and accept a different point of view?You spoke of an obligation of higher truth in a world where everyone has their own version of truth."
6:03
Jarvis answers, "We start with research, if there are echo chambers of opinions. There might be none. We have the presumption that there are similar opinions."
He gives the example of masks. In the US the President refuses to wear a mask and also few foolish public. How to convince people to wear a mask?
"We have to make sure we are not forcing them to believe in something with a propaganda but convince them with a motive of making their lives better," adds Jarvis.
Eshan worries: "As you pointed out, there are too many voices on the internet, and it's not a voice of sanity. Anything can be blown out of proportion. Reporters can get things wrong all the time, but platforms like Twitter can shoot out information before we get a chance to post an erratum."
6:04
Jarvis underscores the need to be respectful and validate every conversation. "But Facebook is not doing the right job of equating all conversations," he states.
Jarvis remarks, "I am scared of people who say they want to control and stop free speech."
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