By Cletus Asuquo
Journalism is an old trade that fosters the development and advancement of a given society. It is the systematic process of corresponding day to day activities with the aim of informing, educating, entertaining, mobilizing and many times, galvanizing opinions, thought, comment and policies that brings about changes and transformations.
In a world faced with daily technological discoveries and human behavioural changes, journalism as a profession has also been affected with these changes.
However, in Journalism before now, the act of gathering, processing and delivering information were cumbersome.
Firstly, reporters were made to go hunt for news stories, conduct interviews, take some unnecessary risk and die for some stories, secondly, most stories were difficult to gain access to, come through, and difficult to report due to complexity and inability to interpret meanings, especially stories that needed adequate findings.
Thirdly, instruments of journalism were very difficult to use and too big to be carried about. But today, the systematic and timely changes have put those encumbrances behind the lens and angles of storytelling.
Journalism has become a novel profession in the digital age. The practice is made easy with the presence of technological equipment and gadgets such as the internet, laptop computer, android phones, camera, and compatible devices that aid, quick findings and investigation of a cause.
With digitalization as a tool of rapid societal changes, the act of journalism has a place in the internet/online. Most print houses and other media organisations have made it an obligation to have an online presence.
In a globalized world, journalism is now at its professional peak. As stated earlier, society cannot advance without the role of journalism, so, journalism is as old as and as young as any societal advancement that occurred and will occur in the world.
This is because, without the process of informing the world about certain occurrences by journalists, it will be as good as if those occurrences didn’t happen. Therefore, reporting about these occurrences is as good as putting the channel (journalism) at the front line of the happenings or changes.
Like before, where there was only offline or print journalism, today, journalism is much online than print. This is one of the testimonials of advancement in journalism. Online journalism is considered much more economical, accessible and interactive than offline or print.
The online media or journalism has enabled readers to interact and navigate through news stories at their convenience. The presence of the internet has also broken the jinx of news sourcing, reporting and presenting; most reporters now access events from the comfort of their offices or homes, write their report and present such within a specific time frame, it has also promoted citizen journalism and eyewitness reportage.
Despite the fact that there has been a smooth change in journalism, the ethics of the profession has not changed. Truth, fairness, objectivity, oddity, balance, attribution, proximity and other nitty gritty of the profession still stand.
Absent of these ethics is no longer journalism. Because, journalism is practiced by trained personnel and not those that have access to journalistic gadgets. To this end, it will be worthy of note to infer that journalism is at the frontline of rapid change in society.
