AAC ARTICLES
Websites have corrupted the journalism arts and obliterated the identity of journalists. Everyone now can get a journalist title. Even bloggers call themselves journalists. Thus, they miss writing news techniques. The simplest professional rules we have learned.
Since I became familiar with journalism and writing about 30 years ago, I have been aware that journalism is the only profession that depends primarily on talent. In the second place, it is about learning the foundations and origins that divide different journalistic systems. Also, creativity remains the key to differentiate between one journalist and another.
Earlier, before the emergence and spread of websites and various media, the press depended on the editor to get information from their sources. It was hard. Thus, they called it “Trouble-Seeking Career,” because the editor usually exerts a great effort. He visits the event site and investigates information. These procedures give the reader the right news in the form of a report or article.
However, today, the modern media, the television press, the Social Media press, and YouTube have eliminated the role of the journalist, so that the information is followed by different forms and in the moment can the reader receive it. This is called “Citizen journalism.”
therefore, for the journalist’s role to remain in place, he must seek another role in events and develop himself. A journalist with the tools has to make use of the information available and present a different research idea. This will only happen with the person who owns the tools. Most but not all journalists have become a transfer of only news and reports from professional agencies and websites and do not even assign themselves to change or innovating the presentation of information through reformulation.
In this regard, the copy-paste technique is a way to transfer info with all its spelling and grammatical errors. What’s remarkable is the very low level of news and data writing, so that the journalist in contrast with a blogger does not know spelling or grammatical rules
Under this absurd scene, there are Egyptian and Arab writers who have all the arts of journalism. Yet you find them without platforms, newspapers, or even websites. They show their productions on their personal Facebook pages.
Unfortunately, some social media blogs and pages offer professional content that surpasses the most important Arab and world newspapers. Here I don’t judge the supply of the size of followers and the spread but judge by the professionalism of the show. In short, the good stuff lives long, and the bad stuff soon ends up.
In the end, I would say that understanding, analyzing, and investigating information are the editor’s real keys to present great content to the reader.
By Mohamed Fathi Al-Sharif
