Brave New Media, Katrine Sorensen

Live it, learn it. As the name implies, new media is a relatively new phenomenon to society; Therefore, people will have to adjust to these new ways of communicating, just as our forefathers adjusted themselves to massive technological leaps that changed both the structure of society and the way society was viewed. However, every time a new invention becomes integrated into our lives we have to make a new set of 'rules' to control the negative impacts on human interaction. Kevin Penny writes in his blog post Journalism 2.0: benefit or burden?: "Although I will digress that the Internet supplies vast amounts of information to the general public, we as a society must learn to use it responsibly." I think that the problem not only lies with the internet, but with many other technologies; the cellphone is a good example of a piece of technology where people have had to come up with some kind of behavioral code surrounding it: is it ok to drive while talking on your cell? Is it fine to discuss your sex life on the phone while riding the LRT? Most of it is common sense, but it is important to acknowledge the new problematics that arise when a new medium is introduced.

Which brings meto social media. I find it surprising that young people who have grown up in an era saturated with digital discourse keep making the same mistakes again and again: publishing material via social media sites such as Facebook that should never have been published. Why don't we learn from the mistakes of others? College students from Australia had to learn the hard way that you cannot get away with publishing antisemitic material when an article about the mishap was published in Sydney Morning Herald. Yes, it was probably meant as a harmless joke, but the repercussions from the joke may be severe when it is 'out there'. Future employers will be wary to hire people who do not understand how to behave online.

As journalists it is important to remember that you are a professional who represents the company at all times - they own your name so to speak. It is problematic if a journalist publishes material on Facebook or Twitter that shows lack of judgement. Especially journalists who have had a virtual feeding frenzy over the many slips of tongue online should know better. Which makes the case of the British journalist Rod Liddle even more ludicrous. According to an article by The Daily Telegraph, Liddle wrote the following on in a blog for the British newspaper The Spectator: "The overwhelming majority of street crime, knife crime, gun crime, robbery and crimes of sexual violence in London is carried out by young men from the African-Caribbean community." Biased? The British Press Complaints Commission seemed to think so when they censored the blog for the first time in Britain.

The concept of privacy is being redefined with all the new forms of communication available. Even on a private Facebook page (as private as it can get), Facebook owns the right to the material published. Personally, I think that it is a bit scary that I don't have any control over what happens with the material I publish online, and it takes away the fun of Facebook when you have to take responsibility of every single silly comment ever made. Caution is advised, and I almost miss the good old Windows pop-up boxes: "are you sure you want to post this comment?". As jarring as it sounds, perhaps we will have to start censoring ourselves online?

Note: image from rextnt.com