Our democracies without journalism

A panel discussion questioned this morning the relevance of traditional press in a world increasingly influenced by citizen journalists

Are traditional journalists still relevant in our democracies, regarding the observed increase of citizen journalists? This was the main issue addressed this morning at Perugia’s international journalism festival during what a panel discussion didn’t find any consensus.

”The decrease of [traditional] journalism over the past 25 years shows that journalism cannot be the watch dog we would like [it to be]. We need democracies providing more information and [capable] to investigate,” said former journalist and current World Economic Forum’s director of communications Adrian Monck.

Four panelists have represented different views and discussed for more than one hour the capability of traditional press organizations to succeed in its aspiration to be an accurate prism between politicians and citizens. According to Marco Pratellesi, head of online Condé Nast Italy, bloggers and citizens using social media such as Twitter cannot replace journalists who are responsible to provide accurate, double-checked information.

Basing his whole argument on an extensive analysis on the freedom of press in Italy – where President Silvio Berlusconi owns a majority of television broadcasters and newspapers – Pratellesi pledged for a reform of traditional journalism based on the importance to keep an editorial independence and a strong sense of accuracy.

”Of course citizen journalists [who use] new technologies [such as intelligent cell phones] provide relevant information to the public debate,” said Pratellesi. ”But citizens don’t need to double check all facts, [neither] to say the truth. This remains the role of [professional] journalists.”

An increasing percentage of people watch less TV news programs and newspapers’ readership is decreasing in many parts of the world. On a daily basis, some believes people care more about what affects their immediate life rather than political debates. This observation was defended during the discussion by Paul Staines, a libertarian blogger who founded the now popular Guido Fawkes blog in Great-Britain.

”[Citizens] don’t care about what’s happening in the parliament. They care about if their train is on time,” he said to a crowd that spontaneously laughed, amused by his skeptical views.

Since television news channels hardly retain their viewers and newspapers lose a significant part of their readers, the debate now turns on what should be the balance between new media and journalism as we know it today.

Is there any consensus on how should the profession evolve?

”I’m very optimistic [regarding the increase of citizen journalism],” said co-founder of YouGov’s Stephan Shakespeare. ”Traditional journalism will not die. It will [end up] with a diversity of expressed opinions, [both by] journalists, experts and bloggers.”

Hugo Pilon-Larose