Seminar discusses newer possibilities of journalism in digital realm

Dubbing the current situation of media houses as disruption, a panel discussion of journalists on Tuesday focused exploring new possibilities in the realm instead of painting a bleak picture.

Titled ‘Future of Journalism’, the session was organised at Aman Tower by students of the Mass Communication department at the University of Karachi and moderated by journalist Sahar Habib Ghazi. The speakers representing different media organisations were Lubna Jarrar Naqvi, Ayaz Khan, Farhan Malik and Shahzeb Ahmed.

Speaking about the prevailing censorship, Malik said that sometimes media houses also voluntarily imposed limitations because certain entities gave them advertisements. He said there was a lot of pushback from advertisers when it came to running certain stories.

Pointing to the treatment of stories, Naqvi said that many stories which get traction on social media make it to headlines: “Earlier, political news were usually catered to in the bulletin but now news about social issues also get the same importance. But at the same time there are many news stories which get a lot of hits and likes but they aren’t worthy.”

Referring to the importance of social media globally, she said the #MeToo movement emerged from social media platforms so it was essential for journalist to get along with the rapidly changing platforms.

Malik added that now, however, many websites producing online content were not merely interested in numbers; rather, they were working on the metrics to determine the loyalty towards their content, which they were aiming to improve.

“I also feel that social media has unleashed this power which unveiled opinions of many users that were earlier filtered. The hate-speech or radical stances weren’t absent previously anywhere, but now there is a place where people can talk what they feel about, whether acceptable to us or not,” he said.

The audience, comprising mainly students, also spoke about social media influencers. Speaking about the attention span of the viewer, Malik said it was wrong to believe that the user would only be interested in one-minute videos because the recent film ‘Black Mirror: Bandersnatch’ has been grossing a lot despite having multiple endings making the film around seven hours’ long.

Reflecting on the ethics followed by journalists, the panel felt that it was important to give time to reporters because it was not easy for them to unlearn different ways taught to them. Sahar stressed that the room for error should be given to younger people because owing to the challenge of giving the best shot in the first time led to unnecessary pressure, which also affected their performance.

All panelists agreed that while it was a difficult time for the media, it was also exciting because newer avenues, especially in the digital space, were opening up and budding journalists must not fear the current scenario; rather, they should explore different horizons and tell the stories they wanted to share.