Media - New and Old

When something new comes on the scene, pundits will always try and predict if the old will fade away, to be replaced by the new. When TV came, there were predictions that radio would fade away. But today, radio is still going strong, with niched listeners. With the new media of blogs and cyberspace, the same prediction came - would the newspapers be something to be read of only in history books?

To the relief of all, Prof Henry Jenkins of MIT (MIT can't be far off the trend, right?) doesn't think so. Rather, he thinks in the world of media convergence, the interplay between the old and new will help them co-exist, and influence each other. Phew! In fact, someone of the new media once expressed exasperation over the demarcation - why separate between "old" and "new"? They are just different platforms, different channels of communication.

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Straits Times, Saturday, 13 Jan 07

When old meets new media
By Warren Fernandez

AN INTERESTING media debate has been raging, after several newspapers published photographs from the amateur video of the hanging of former Iraqi strongman Saddam Hussein.

This debate is quite separate from the one about the ethics of the way Saddam was goaded and hanged by what appeared to be a Shiite mob, and what this says about the prospects for sectarian peace in Iraq.

Rather, the questions that are being raised relate to how, and why, the media should have reported the event.

As Mr Ian Mayes, the Readers' Editor for the Guardian, noted: 'More than 200 readers contacted the Guardian to express something very close to unanimity in their condemnation of the front page of the paper that greeted them on New Year's Day.
'This carried across the full width of the page a picture with the caption, 'Saddam Hussein hanging from a noose after execution in Baghdad early on Saturday, in a photograph seemingly taken by camera phone and obtained from an Arab-language website'.'

Some of the paper's readers accused it of being complicit in 'pornographic ghoulishness', and of making 'an inexcusable error of judgment', he added.
But the Guardian was not alone in having to decide how to use the dramatic video images. Editors in newspapers around the world, including this one, were forced to make some tough judgment calls, and against tight deadlines. We ran the Saddam picture in an inside page.

As columnist Peter Preston noted in the Observer, a London Sunday paper: 'When the unauthorised footage emerged, the dilemma became predictably extreme. Did you, like the Guardian, clear the top of page one and plaster that final image across it?
'Did you, like the Times and Telegraph, opt for no such jolting thing and run pictures of (singer) Kylie Minogue resurgent instead? Did you, like the Mail, produce a weird sort of photo strip? It all seemed a matter of heavily pondered judgment, imponderable taste and not frightening the children: so decision-making went every which way.'

The controversy prompted the Guardian's editor, Mr Alan Rusbridger, to write a personal letter to readers explaining his decision to run the pictures.
The hanging of Saddam, he argued, was a major political event in the sorry saga of Iraq's invasion and its aftermath, in which Britain had played a major role. The impact it would have on the future of Iraq's deeply divided society also made it significant.

He went on to add: 'A further factor in our decision was the misleading impression of the execution which had been conveyed by the original 'official' silent video released within minutes of Saddam's death.

'The subsequent mobile phone footage - shot from a different angle and with the sound of cursing, chanting and jostling observers - gave an entirely different impression of the occasion. It was, in my view, right to give some prominence to this unvarnished version of events.'

In other words, someone wielding a video camera and the ability to load his images quickly on the Net had made a crucial difference to editors' deliberations on what to print, and how.

With the gory images out there, and readily available to all, editors would have to think long and hard about trying to shield their readers from the harsh realities of the world, even if some readers might take offence.

They might not always be swayed by this and still decide against going to print for reasons of taste, and other social concerns, as some newspapers did. But like it or not, the new media has added something new to the calculus.

Similar dilemmas have been posed in recent times by gruesome video footage of beheadings of hostages by terrorist groups, or the frequent messages sent out by terror chiefs, via various websites.

Welcome to the world of media convergence, where old and new media not only co-exist, but also inevitably influence each other, as media expert Professor Henry Jenkins puts it.
Prof Jenkins, who co-directs the Massachusetts Institute of Technology's comparative media studies programme, was in Singapore recently to deliver the first in a Singapore Press Holdings Foundation lecture series, titled Media In Transition: Social And Economic Impact.

He cited some examples: a song by hip hop group Legendary K.O., titled George Bush Don't Like Black People, about the Bush administration's lackadaisical response to Hurricane Katrina, was first released on a blog. Some 10,000 people downloaded it within a day, bringing it to the attention of the mainstream media, which picked it up.

Similarly, a speech by comedian Stephen Colbert, in which he hit out at President Bush's foreign policy at a recent dinner - even as the President sat forlornly listening just a few steps away - was largely ignored by network television, until someone uploaded it on YouTube.

Interestingly, however, Prof Jenkins does not belong to the crowd who predict the inexorable rise of new media and with it, the imminent demise of old or mainstream media.

He says: 'The Web doesn't exist in a vacuum but in relation to mass media... If you look at YouTube or what people talk about in their blogs, it's often about what's published in newspapers. So it's not blogs against newspapers, but the interplay between them.'

He adds: 'I believe firmly that the newspaper will survive. Will it do so as a printed publication that you read on the subway? I don't know.
'But will professional news-editing and gathering survive? Almost certainly, because the more voices and issues you have on the Net, the more we will want to turn to some trusted people whom we know will bring the voices together, exercise editorial judgment and weigh facts to provide the most reliable information.'

Put simply, the more content that becomes available to people around the world, the more they will look to someone to help them make sense of it all, to verify, interpret and analyse.
The new media world of the future could thus be one of respected brand-name newspapers and media houses, with editors and commentators who had managed to forge relationships with a new generation of readers.

But it is not the mainstream media alone that has to find new ways of dealing with the new media. Parents, schools, judiciaries and legislatures have to do so too.
We have seen the first wave of this in Singapore, with several high-profile cases of those who posted online comments being hit with the Sedition Act for threatening to upset the delicate racial peace here.

At the time, some saw this as the authorities wielding a heavy hand. Yet, the cases had the salutary effect of helping to make clear that even in cyberspace, the social and political realities of real-world Singapore cannot be wished away.
The proposed revisions to the Penal Code to incorporate offences committed online and in electronic media are another step in this direction.

Singapore is not alone in this. In the past two years, more than 50 lawsuits stemming from postings on blogs and website message boards have been filed in the United States, reported USA Today.

In one case, a lawyer in Georgia, Mr Rafe Banks, took his ex-client, Mr David Milum, to court when the latter wrote on his blog that Mr Banks had bribed judges on behalf of drug dealers.

Last January, Mr Milum became the first blogger to lose a libel case in the US and was ordered to pay US$50,000 (S$77,000) in damages to Mr Banks.

As Mr Robert Cox, president of the Media Bloggers Association, told USA Today, the recent wave of lawsuits meant that bloggers should learn libel law.

'It has not happened yet, but soon, there will be a blogger who is successfully sued and who loses his home,' he said.

Rather than allowing young people to learn these lessons the hard way, Prof Jenkins has called on schools to help equip the Internet generation with the skills, and culture, to navigate the emerging world of media convergence.

He summed up the dilemmas faced in the present old- meets-new media world this way: 'The world has suddenly developed a printing press for every person on the planet, but has not prepared its culture to be responsible or imagine the consequences of suddenly becoming media makers.'

Put simply, the Internet generation has to learn that while the Net enables free speech like no other medium can, freedom can only be enjoyed by a society if its members collectively safeguard it, while doing their part to enhance and protect the well-being of their community.

Newspapers, as well as other social institutions and community groups, have roles to play to help society find its way forward in this bewildering new media world.

warren@sph.com.sg