News and Journalism Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2250 words

News and Journalism - Essay Example News and Journalism Amidst a whirlpool of contemporary movements like citizen journalism and new grassroots online media initiatives and with the mediascape changing at an incomprehensibly rapid pace, it's no wonder that so many publications are left wondering what the future looks like. Understanding the impact of these shifts and changes, and how an organization can take advantage of them to deliver a certain message and reach out to the audience, will be an important journey. It is not new to say that there is an ethnic bias in the mainstream media in almost all parts of the world and this fact has been proven beyond doubt by innumerable studies. Compounded by protracted ethno-political conflict, exacerbated by ineffective media reforms and coupled with the imperatives of market economics, the mainstream media in continues to perceive ethnicity as immutable and innate thereby neglecting its responsibility to demystify stereotypes and buttress institutions and practices that can ameliorate ethno-political conflict. It is natural for a media to keep its language readership in mind but impartiality and accuracy suffer as a result of this inherent bias. In an ethnically polarized society, ethnic bias in mainstream news media can take multiple forms and these are also reflected in the ownership of media houses. The problem facing journalists all over is how to protect their 'independence' when the world around them asks them to follow strategies and ethics which bind them to a certain ideology and path when no path or method is value neutral. And yet, the imperatives of journalism - accuracy, fairness, impartiality and reliability (Ross,2002) - bolstered by the freedom of expression, speech and information and open government provide the backbone of democratic pluralism. However, the multiplicity of voices in the media should not become a cacophony of half-truths, and must avoid the ills of rabid ethnocentrism and tabloid sensationalism. this could be done by promoting ethnic and gender balance in the newsrooms, regular updating and internal review of editing and style handbooks, in-house workshops and training on conflict sensitive journalism and greater co-operation between personnel and grass-roots level correspondents. Media reform has to have a holistic approach. Inextricably entwined with the impetus for media reform should also be the enabling framework of legislation regarding the right to information, the right to speech and the freedom of expression. A piecemeal approach to media reform, neglecting the wider canvas within which such reform takes place, is short-sighted and will not lead to any noticeable change. There are numerous external factors which influence the nature of the media. The rapid development of telecommunications and media technologies has transformed the very nature of the media by becoming an integral part of all events taking place in space and time. Live coverage in itself is recognized as a new event. Examples of this are the landing of US marines in Somalia and Haiti and the assault on the Beli dom and the Ostankino television station in Moscow. National and state politics have a powerful and crucial influence on the media in non-democratic regimes and unconsolidated democracies. In democratic societies