While still at college a couple of years back, I vividly recall cracking up the school assembly with a sly dig at one of the top prefects at a leadership retreat held at one of the hotels along the lake shores in Entebbe. The role model to many Form Ones at the time at St. Mary’s College, Kisubi was seen attempting to abide by table etiquette – the knife should be in the right hand and the fork in the left. His efforts to follow suit were fruitless so he opted for the traditional “chicken in the hand version of eating”.
Unfortunately he panicked and his plate slipped off the table and broke. We now knew that the once perfect school model was also lacking in some aspects of life. The manner in which I disseminated that information using a microphone was effective at the time. Now, however, there are varying and smoother channels of dissemination.
With humble beginnings of news being disseminated in Rome in 59 B.C., in a circular the Acta Diurna – the first newspaper, journalism has experienced tremendous evolution. At the time, the circulars were pasted on trees and walls on streets. But now, one can get information just by a swipe of their phone.
While the editor at a leading media house is following all the journalistic principles to ensure that the story he publishes is up to standard, there is a certain student in a hostel breaking news as well on his Twitter timeline. Interestingly, the student’s content will reach the audience even faster than the media house.
This kind of journalism, also called citizen journalism, has fast risen in recent years, of course aided by the advancement in technology. However, just like CP Scott, an editor of The Guardian in 1920 asserted that comments are free but facts are sacred, the question of authenticity of the content on social media will continue to be discussed.
The approach to media has advanced in the recent past, with media houses embracing all aspects of the spectrum such as video, audio, text and images to use online. One wonders that journalism will look like 50 years from now.
Derrick Muduku,
MA Strategic Communication
