Journalists are being driven from the industry by an incessant barrage of online abuse and threats, a senior editorial executive in the United Kingdom has warned.
Ian Carter, of Iliffe Media, also believes the attacks are leading to a fall in the number of people wanting to become journalists.
“I have no doubt this is happening, in part, due to a reluctance to open themselves up to abuse from morons,” Carter says.
Recently a senior journalist in Cornwall quit, citing abuse directed at him and colleagues, while media group Reach has appointed an online safety editor in an effort to confront the problem.
Reporters and editors have had to deal with disaffected members of the public since the birth of newspapers in the 18th century. In my time in the media I was often confronted outside court with defendants pleading that I not publish their case.
On one memorable occasion I had to negotiate with a trio of rogues who buttonholed me demanding to know why my story on their rampage that led to the near destruction of a local bar was on my newspaper’s front page rather than a major battle in Vietnam (yes it was that long ago).
You learned to talk your way out of those kinds of situations (blame some anonymous editor). However, the problem has been hugely magnified by the domination of social media in the past couple of decades.
Where once a complainant had to go to the bother of penning a letter, or taking on the journalist face-to-face, keyboard warriors can, from the anonymity of their living-rooms, direct a torrent of vitriol and vile threats at their helpless victim.
It often goes beyond simple abuse and foul language. Women journalists have been threatened with assault and rape; males with beatings, or the sinisterly ominous “we know where you live” statement.
Carter believes “a very dangerous narrative is developing; it’s no wonder we are seeing smaller numbers of people entering the industry”.
The problem here is that social media is a two-way street. Journalists must be on Twitter and Facebook — and let the world know they are there — because increasingly that is the way we communicate.
Media outlets attach comment sections to the stories reporters write because they want to judge the interest they generate. There is also the possibility that sensible and informed comments will lead to valuable follow-ups.
However, that makes the authors, in effect, Aunt Sallies for anyone who thinks they have a grievance, to take a shot at.
Carter says that while anonymous social media users are the biggest problem, it isn’t helped by people who should know better feeding the myth that journalists are untrustworthy.
“We have had numerous examples of [police] family liaison officers warning people off talking to the press, and every politician who labels something ‘fake news’ because they don’t like their own shortcomings being exposed, add to the problem,” he says.
No comments:
Post a Comment