Journalism in the Digital Age: The Commonwealth Experience
What is the future of journalism in the digital age? That question was the theme of the Commonwealth Journalists Association's (CJA's) tenth international conference in London, the first to be held in the UK since the CJA was founded in 1978. What soon became clear was that the answer varied radically from one part of the Commonwealth to another. In 'old Commonwealth' countries such as Australia, Britain and Canada, the main preoccupation is the loss of journalists' jobs as readers, advertisers and broadcast audiences migrate online. In many other parts of the Commonwealth, the concern can be simply staying alive. Bangladesh and Pakistan are two of the most dramatic examples, but they are by no means alone. Farid Hossein, CJA Bangladesh chair and an international vice president, reported that at least five bloggers expressing secularist views had been murdered in 2015, and the killings expressly, or assumed to be, the work of Islamist extremists have continued this year. The same technological transformation that has given individual bloggers a platform, and a means of engaging with their audience, has also enabled their enemies to band together, track them down and kill them. Another example of the double edged nature of the digital revolution came from Pakistan, where journalists in both traditional and new media face intimidation from thugs hired by politicians and business interests, as well as militants. Yet the Rural Media Network, whose members are far more isolated and vulnerable than their big city counterparts, has used the internet to set up an alert system. It lets colleagues and the national media know whenever a rural journalist suffers violence, abduction or threats, bringing them some measure of protection. What journalists from all parts of the Commonwealth had in common was the fear that digital disruption would create a profession that might be equally or even more numerous, but badly paid, immersed in trivia and lacking the training to sift truth from the rumour and fakery that is so easily spread online. However, journalists have no choice but to adapt.