No time for journalism, let’s all do what we want!
This is no time for journalism, likely sums up this post. On BBC 3’s the TikTok Effect, a TikToker describes her work covering the murder of four students in Idaho. She flew seven hours from home to the scene to film. It lent authenticity. Some of her videos racked up 20m views.There’s no need for journalism school, she says covering this tragic event. In the film on BBC I-player she explains how a parent “didn’t want anyone to help search for their missing daughter… Her parents actually shot a flare gun at my mother, I and some friends”, she says. TikTok rewards the makers of Internet sleuth videos through amplification and its algorithm. The company from the BBC story says they’re bringing communities together and that it deploys resources to tackle conspiratorial content. This IS the new journalism, if at all the word “journalism” can be pinned down. There’s no need for guidelines or rules such as due impartiality. Using TikTok you can all but do as you please, without taking into account the consequence of your actions. In the film Olivia does say she is is an empathic person and doesn’t sensationalise. I’ve been a journalist since the 90s and now I teach it at university. Journalism is not perfect. There’s so much wrong with it. Writing is just the half of it. Its lack of understanding psychology within developments in propaganda and language, or how diversity and diversity of thought is absent in training is one of its many Achilles.
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