CHALLENGING FACTORS BEING JOURNALIST NOWADAYS

 This was originally written by Farah Hazwani for assignment for International Journalism class. 

Source: ChaeteauNews

Journalist is a career who are provided news to the public. There are many kind of challenges that are journalist have to face it. But today’s public may be unaware of the challenges of journalism and the fact that professional journalists accept by a code of ethics that ensures a free exchange of accurate and fair information. 

The challenges that are facing by Malaysian journalist is freedom of speech. In this democracy country, the government mentioned the media is given the right to speak but in reality media are not given the right. In the past years we have seen many reporters and editors being locked up, interrogated, and frightened neither even killed just for doing their jobs.  For instance, the cases of Saudi Arabian journalist Jamal Khashoggi have been killed because of doing their responsibilities. Also according to Awani journalist known as Zan Azlee, he said that he have been threatened and warned by police while reporting during the 13th General Election. He also have been prevented from shooting videos by police while reporting on demonstrations and protests events. 

Besides, the challenge that journalist faced it is challenge from social media by “citizen journalist”. Media user or which known as “citizen journalist” has conquer all the news in social media. Regular public that give a lot of information using social media platforms. Social media such as Facebook, WhatsApp, Instagram has already completely change the concept of breaking news. It now often comes from social media before traditional means, with people being the first to report on, for example, celebrity’s gossip, via their social media pages, which is most likely where a professional journalist will then be made known of the news. This is where the challenge been done where, mostly content by them especially a video is likely spread faster. Then when, professional journalist sit for their story it won’t be a new news anymore.  

Furthermore, journalist will also face information overload. With all the everyday news been updated, unlimited access to all news category, journalist cannot avoid information overload.  The difficulty in understanding an issue and effectively making decisions when one has too much information about that issue. So when there it’s a lot of information, public tend to be confused which one are the true news. 

Lastly, fake news also one of the challenging factor being a journalist. In this digital era of news, there are many false information or “fake news” spread especially in social media or online website. Usually, reader are really attracted to this kind of news. These stories are created to either influence people’s views, push a political agenda or cause uncertainty and can often be a profitable business for online publishers. Information overload and a general lack of understanding also can lead to fake news. For instance, the death of Dwayne Johnson, absolutely audience with lack of understanding will share and spread the news. Because of this challenges also journalist cannot get fully trust from public. 

Conclusion, journalist is actually a tough job in world. It is very difficult to compete with this modern world and the raise of technology. They get through all the difficulty and sometimes sacrifice themselves to serve their responsibilities to community. Nowadays, with all this kind of challenging that they have to face it, make audience lose their respect to journalism world.