Reflection No 1- Khit Sue Lun

I want you to think about the following questions:

1. Based on your understanding of facts and opinions, why do you think this is important for a journalist/ reporter in the world of online news reporting?

Being a journalist/reporter is a huge responsibility as you must make sure that the news published is credible. Hence, they must determine facts and opinions very clearly. For example, if an opinion is written as a fact, the reporter might be faced with severe consequences for tarnishing someone’s reputation or causing problems for them. Hence, they must make sure that they clearly define a fact and an opinion accurately to avoid undesirable consequences that might land them in deep trouble and to even lose their job.

1. How can some of the problems raised in the articles be controlled?

One problem raised in the article is that the information published in the internet might not be very accurate as the reporters are trying to publish it in the fastest time possible. This problem can be controlled by informing the reporters that accuracy is much more important than speed. Besides that, there should also be another person checking for the credibility of the article before it is published on the internet.

Information overload is also another problem that will lead to confusions as the readers will have difficulties in determining which articles are the credible ones. Hence, the site publishing the articles should limit the number of articles published per day ensure that there are no repetitions. Limitations should also be set on the people who are allowed to publish such information on the internet.

The shift to online journalism has also created new medium-specific ethical dilemmas. Hyperlinks, for example, are a valuable tool in online journalism but can lead to potential problems, as the web pages they link to may be inaccurate, offensive or inappropriate. To deal with this ethically, the content and quality of linked websites should be monitored and internet users should be warned that the pages they visit are not part of the news website

1. What are some responsibilities of discerning readers?

They should be able to differ from fact and opinion and not raise problems and major discussions because they misread an opinion as a fact. They should also practice responsibility in commenting on the articles, thinking more for the reporters and not make a huge fuss out of nothing, bringing trouble to others.