Online journalism has changed the face of journalism practice in Nigeria and the world at large. The Internet has virtually revolutionized the process of news and information gathering and dissemination. However, not ...Online journalism has changed the face of journalism practice in Nigeria and the world at large. The Internet has virtually revolutionized the process of news and information gathering and dissemination. However, not abiding by the ethics of the profession has become its major burden, a situation that is blamed on certain identified factors. Presently, there is no clear distinction between the role of conventional journalism and citizen journalism. Conventional journalism, which is the mainstream profession of joumalism, requires one form of training or the other, either through education or on the job training, for them to discharge their social responsibility role, unlike in the case of citizen journalism, which is presently usurping the role of conventional journalism. This development spells negative effects to the trend of journalism. No doubt, the Internet has removed the barriers of space and time on human interactions; hence, information can easily be obtained at a relatively low cost; but, the major challenges are those of ethics, professionalism, and training. These issues need to be addressed urgently before they set the country on fire. This article traces the background of the ethical challenge and examines its management, highlighting the steps that could be taken to tackle the menace. The reasons for the continued growth in audience of new news site are also explained.展开更多
文摘Online journalism has changed the face of journalism practice in Nigeria and the world at large. The Internet has virtually revolutionized the process of news and information gathering and dissemination. However, not abiding by the ethics of the profession has become its major burden, a situation that is blamed on certain identified factors. Presently, there is no clear distinction between the role of conventional journalism and citizen journalism. Conventional journalism, which is the mainstream profession of joumalism, requires one form of training or the other, either through education or on the job training, for them to discharge their social responsibility role, unlike in the case of citizen journalism, which is presently usurping the role of conventional journalism. This development spells negative effects to the trend of journalism. No doubt, the Internet has removed the barriers of space and time on human interactions; hence, information can easily be obtained at a relatively low cost; but, the major challenges are those of ethics, professionalism, and training. These issues need to be addressed urgently before they set the country on fire. This article traces the background of the ethical challenge and examines its management, highlighting the steps that could be taken to tackle the menace. The reasons for the continued growth in audience of new news site are also explained.
