Tough challenges await RI journalists, media owners
Ardimas Sasdi Staff Writer The Jakarta Post Berkeley, California
The phenomenal development in information technology (IT) over the last two decades, accelerated by the Internet, has changed many aspects of human activity.
In journalism, an agent of change in society, the entire editorial department, from reporters to editors, have no choice but adapt to the fast-changing conditions that have led to the existence of real-time news.
The shift in media attitude has also been necessitated by rising expectations among readers and listeners, who seek not only quality reporting, but also news that is short and easy to understand -- in line with their limited time to read and watch TV, especially among young professionals.
Estimates are that the number of the Internet subscribers will jump from almost 200 million to at least 800 million people by the year 2010.
Media people can either resist these change and be left behind or adjust to the new realities.
In America, media companies and universities have taken steps to meet the technological challenges brought about by developments in information technology, which have made newsrooms -- print and electronic media -- IT intensive. Journalism schools have redesigned their curriculums to address these changes.
The Graduate School of Journalism at the University of California at Berkeley, for instance, has for several years been introducing new subjects formerly not taught at traditional journalism schools.
A course in computer-assisted reporting, for example, concentrates on how computers and the Internet can be used by reporters to help them in processing and gathering information, including conducting long-distance interviews with witnesses, victims and officials involved in events taking place far from their media headquarters.
Problems do exist in this type of news gathering, especially in verifying the authenticity of news and getting the nuance of events.
"Journalists can verify facts by interviewing only people they trust and comparing the results of their interviews with reports from news agencies and other sources," said Paul Grabowicz, a lecturer in Computer Assisted Reporting at the Graduate School of Journalism at UC Berkeley.
Developments in IT are not only a challenge for media executives and educators, but also for politicians and governments, especially in developing countries where the quality of reporting needs improvement.
In Indonesia, experts, academics and media watch organizations have time and again lashed out at poor media management and questioned the commitment of media executives and owners to human resources development.
Apart from information technology, journalists in Indonesia have a host of challenges to overcome. During a recent in-house training at The Jakarta Post, veteran journalist Sabam Siagian said journalists must sharpen their skills and curiosity and avoid complacency to meet the tough challenges ahead -- the changing situation in Indonesia and the world, including the future role of China in the 21st century, the major influence of a united Europe on information and technology, the growing role of Russia in the Asia Pacific and how long the U.S. can maintain its dominant global power.
If other media executives share such concerns the Indonesian media will surely improve, and the goal of building an informed citizenry will become reality. An informed and educated populace is crucial for the establishment of a civil society, good governance and democracy.
The press can play a constructive role in Indonesia's noble plan to build a civil society, good governance and democracy only if there is press freedom and if journalists are exposed to the new political concepts and empowered through proper training and education programs. And journalists must also cooperate and work to improve themselves, given that the core of the craft of journalism is knowledge and skills.
The writer is a visiting scholar at the Graduate School of Journalism at the University of California, Berkeley.