A three-day conference of senior journalists focusing on the social media, press ethics, sports journalism and the lessons learnt from the fallout of Rupert Murdoch, opened this morning at the Radisson in St Julians.
The conference is being hosted by the Commonwealth Journalists' Association and groups international journalists and Commonwealth experts.
It was opened by Mario de Marco, Minister for Tourism and Culture, who said this was a difficult as well as an interesting time for journalists.
The financial crisis, he said, was affecting many countries at different levels. This put a heavy burden on journalists as they sought to balance the budgetary restrictions affecting their media organisations with the best interest of viewers, readers and listeners who expected nothing but the best quality journalism.
Furthermore, restrictions on journalists were still very strong in a number of countries.
"Unfortunately, there are still too many instances where journalism is, as you aptly title one of your panel discussions, a matter of life and death. Almost 900 journalists had been killed since 1992; 46 of them were killed last year."
Dr De Marco observed that technology was providing journalists with more possibilities. What was impossible years ago, was now possible, what was difficult is now easy. Technology was also challenging the traditional border line that divided the professional broadcasters and journalists from the rest.
Referring to the Arab Spring, he noted how the dictators controlled all the traditional mass media but the common people controlled the new media.
"The dictators controlled the tanks, the common people controlled the smart phones and the social networks. They used these new media to communicate, to congregate, to inform the world about what was happening, to expose the feet of clay of the regime. The Arab Spring has changed one of the most sapient and most popular dictum about journalism. We can say today that the Smart Phone is more powerful than the sword! Besides, the Arab Spring, more than any other political or cultural upheaval, has amply demonstrated that citizen journalism has come of age."
The conference theme, Dr de Marco said, showed how the CJA recognised the present developments as multifaceted ones combining together technology, politics, the legal system and the profession.
"The coming decade will be for you a decade of promise and a decade of vision. I augur that your quest will reach its destination."
In a presentation outlining the growing potential of mobile journalism, or “mojo”, author and academic Stephen Quinn compared the tools available to journalists in the past to modern-day technology.
He spoke at length about journalists using mobile smart phones to create, edit and upload stories. “Everybody has a phone these days, and not only are they small and light, but they don’t draw attention and are unlikely to get confiscated,” Dr Quinn said.
Modern-day phones were capable of creating broadcast-quality video and audio at a fraction of the price required to set up large, bulky mobile transmission stations.
According to Dr Quinn, large-scale media organisations were still reluctant to “make the switch” to using smart phones to create stories “probably because they’ve invested such large sums in older equipment that they want to make sure they get their value for money.”
He noted that media organisations needed embrace and reward their audiences and create an constructive dialogue with them. “You can’t suck free content from people and just expect them to keep on feeding you stories,” he said.