 It was extraordinary when information began to explode with the advent of the Internet. Not a day goes by that I don't use the Internet for news and emails as well as in search of encyclopaedic knowledge of various kinds and, above all, news leads for my new job as an international news editor.
In a way, the Internet is setting the news agenda for the traditional media like newspapers and magazines and even for broadcast media, with its limitless space and timeliness. Editors in print media nowadays rely more on the Internet to follow what is happening not only in the cities where we live but also across the country and around the world. However, some websites are creating bogus content or simply headlines as sensational or breaking "news" to increase the number of clicks as competition between different Internet portals becomes brutal. With little respect for professional journalism, they either cook up stories from hearsay, or write up headings, with the content having little or nothing to support the allegation in the headlines. In the past few weeks, we read from the Internet that an official managing State assets was quoted as saying that the State was going to build a Chinatown in a tourist resort in a neighbouring country. And we also hit upon a headline saying that some electrical appliance manufacturers would pull out of the market from another foreign country. Unfortunately, headlines on the Internet sometimes become a yardstick for editors in other media to push reporters to go after this and that and measure their job performances. When such headlines appear on the Internet, reporters in other media are forced to spend time checking and double-checking the "news leads" in order to dig deeper for more solid content. Even when they and their editors question the validity and truthfulness of the stories or headlines with their own knowledge and rich experience, they cannot just ignore the bogus news. "What if it were true?" a colleague of mine asked. No editor could afford to let a good piece of news slip from their fingers. Often time is wasted, while the websites that created the phoney "news" sometimes just delete those headlines or articles as if nothing happened. Meanwhile, some reporters from the traditional media have started to forego their own integrity and professionalism. They go out less, do less homework and indulge in hasty phone calls or copy-and-paste from the Internet. As a result, their reporting is tarnished as it is filled with statements from anonymous sources and often their own deductions. Even some of the human interest stories suffer in this way. For instance, a story last week speculated on the "mystery" behind a famous person's paralysis, quoting two of his relatives under condition of anonymity. The story would have read better and been more authoritative if the writer had read the tear-jerking chapters in a biography written by the person's younger sister. All these are dangerous signs for journalism its truthfulness, fairness and objectivity. In fact, the public has become weary and begun to question the authenticity of journalism as a whole. I believe truthfulness, fairness and objectivity are key criteria for all who engage in journalism, not only in the traditional news media but also on the Internet. These principles are essential in developing and expanding a loyal audience and taking the lead in an era of increasingly fierce competition. I don't think people will be making return clicks to those wibesites and their notoriously bogus news. (China Daily 12/07/2006 page4)
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