’’Digital Journalists need to be more responsible’’, says Sahid Sk

The 21st century saw the rise of the Internet which proved to be pathbreaking owing to the arenas and avenues that it opened up for news to travel faster from one place to another

Sahid Sk

Sekh Mahammad Abu Sahid, popularly known as Sahid Sk is an experienced Digital Creator and Entrepreneur. He co-founded "Protibadi Awaz" a Bengali digital news platform in 2018, a platform which operates in the Bengali language of West Bengal.

His views on digital journalists being more responsible about the kind of content that they put up are quite firm. The 20th and 21st centuries have revolutionized how humans communicate. People are now able to walk around with devices capable of connecting them with anybody around the world in a matter of seconds, across all platforms and through vivid mediums, be it video conferencing or photo sharing.

With the advancement in technology which is coupled with the research and development that takes place, the field of journalism has evolved to greater lengths today than just a decade ago. Journalists and Reporters from around the world operate in ways which would be almost unrecognizable from when journalism ever came into picture. The 21st century saw the rise of the Internet which proved to be pathbreaking owing to the arenas and avenues that it opened up for news to travel faster from one place to another. Newer types of journalism have flourished within the media landscape and the industry is constantly evolving. From having long reports being read out for public perusal on the radio to bite sized content being now consumed on social media, the medium as well as the way of communicating has changed multi-fold.

Internet Journalism or Digital Journalism is growing at a fast pace. Each day more and more people are getting absorbed into this field. It’s safe to say that digital journalism has grown so much that you may find at least 1 digital journalist in your own neighbourhood! The ever-evolving industry has mainstream media houses trying to ignore small local news channels, however local digital media makes sure that authentic news gets published owing to which people rely a lot more on digital journalism today.

The traditional ideal of journalism which was aimed to serve as independent sources, attempting to deliver the news in a fact-based, objective manner, is today not practiced by all in the true sense. Digital Media platforms nowadays showcase a bias or a point of view, but still attempt to promote that perspective through a lens that includes fair framing, editing, and reporting. Fake news has today become a big concern. Even propaganda is shared under the guise of news. Anyone can create a digital media page or channel and put an opinion out into the world, where it can go viral without any fact-checking.

What’s most disheartening however, of this all, is to know that people actually hold these opinions or news in the highest regard and believe it. This, has certainly become the biggest disadvantage of free for all digital media. Sahid, believes that digital journalists need to be more responsible with the kind of content they share. A thorough fact checking should be done for all publishable news. With great number of audience comes great responsibility. Journalists should never forget the ethos for followers and fame. But most importantly, digital or mainstream, every journalist needs to keep their bias to themselves alone. The audience deserves real, fact based, unbiased and unadulterated news and that’s what every journalist must keep in mind.

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