Улаанбаатар
Journalists to stand out from Facebook users with ethics and professionalism
Society
Ulaanbaatar /MONTSAME/. Organized by the Media Council of Mongolia (MCM), a discussion took place on how media and press should be handled online at the Journalism Ethics Forum (JEF), under the theme, ‘Professional Journalism and the Digital Era’.
In some cases, citizens are better in content as well as speed, compared to professional journalists. Thus, the presenters at the forum agreed on the fact that, despite this case, journalists should stand out from them by confirming the news with numerous sources and abiding journalism ethics.
The main presentation was done by CEO of the MCM G.Gunjidmaa, with the topic ‘Hate speech on Websites and Social Media’.
In her presentation, she said, “According to a study we conducted, we have found out that there are several terms of hate speech that is used frequently on social media. 130-140 terms were found from 43 news sites. Of the terms, 30 percent was used in the article, while 70 percent was used in the comment section. Professional journalists should stand out from normal citizens, with ethics foremost. This should be done by abiding by the journalism ethics and doing their main duty, which is to “enlighten” the society. Although online articles abide by the ethics, people tend to leave inappropriate comments. News agencies should supervise their comment sections, considering it as a part of their job.”
Editor-in-chief of Asia Mining magazine S.Bold-Erdene said, “It has now come a time when a journalist needs more than just 5 questions and answers. For instance, there is a need to learn how to make statistical graphics. One way to stand out from normal citizens is by making the news easy to understand.”
A guidance book, concluding the topics discussed at the forum, is to be published afterwards, which can be used as a set of rules to follow for news agencies.
