In Kashmir valley and particularly in Srinagar city we all are witness to sudden emergence of facebook pages / web portals & innumerable mobile journalists.
News is ham-handedly gathered and disseminated without responsibility and proper care.
Usually these “newsmen and women” lack journalism degrees and some of them reportedly are mere undergraduates and college dropouts.
Therefore rendering them unfit for this noble profession.
And in absence of precise regulations from the government and a regulatory check numerous such social media journalists are active on different social media platforms.
Mostly they are been seen “wandering” in the Srinagar’s Press Enclave without any sort of authentication from any authority whatsoever.
Such elements in media have suddenly emerged from nowhere and their numbers are increasing with each passing day.
Both men and women are there in this race to hit the headlines on the slightest of newsbreak.
And do they ever cross-check the potential newsbreaks or asses the impact of their aired content?
Actually these Facebook or social media journalists commence their journey with an expenditure of a few hundred bucks as they buy a microphone and little paraphernalia mostly from city’s electronic market housing middle grade equipments.
And with a cell phone in hand of such ham-handed men and women mobile “journalists” or “mojos” as they are called in the present news industry begin recording news bytes and drop into every event or any occurrence having a news sense.
They are audacious enough yet reportedly most of them lack proper education not to talk of being in possession of any valid journalism degrees.
Ironically on any topic they find a news angle and rush in on the spot and begin interviewing people on topics so diverse and sometimes irrelevant.
Surprisingly they find means to interview top bureaucrats and political leaders.
While they and their news portals remain unregistered and unrecognized.
With the boom in social media sites and platforms and equally paced with high end internet connectivity they are present and echoing views everywhere on the web portals only to multiply their supposed impact and numbers.
Arguably in this age of convergent journalism we also find some reputed news organisations having presence on their social media handles.
But these authentic convergent media organizations get pushed back and sidelined in the over populous and growing unregistered social media news portals.
There is no one regulating the traffic presently.
As these facebook journalists lack basic sense of professional skills they have a tendency to create sensationalism and confusion in the society.
As is understood the responsible and reputed media organizations follow some written and unwritten rules before breaking the news.
They check and cross-check the information before making it public.
They look for the proper news angle and news sense and follow a presentation style in the copy/report before going to the press.
And there are so many journalistic ethics to be taken care of.
This all comes after pusuing higher education in Journalism and spending quality time with the news organizations as internees.
But on the contrary we lack these qualities in mobile journalists who suddenly step into the domain of news gathering and news dissemination process.
Be it any news break they go live on social media sites with uncontrolled and unedited content that may sometimes prove detrimental to the societal peace, tranquility and order.
We have seen them give full & live coverage of suicides from bridges particularly in Srinagar city.
This may have lead to sensationalisation the act and consequently in past months we have seen that a trend is being set for others.
Therefore in order to curb the trend of every other person holding a microphone in hand and calling himself a journalist by mere setting up of a social media page or channel the Union territory government needs to swiftly derecognise all such web portals and facebook pages which have been involved in disseminating news content withouth recognitions and regulations.
Let the UT Government come up with the appropriate directions and the Department of Information & Public Relations J&K take cognizance and intervene to control the situation.
The unauthorized and selfstyled portals and facebook pages involved in news dissemination be barred for want of proper authorisation and requisite training and relevant professional degrees.
Most of them reportedly have not even undergone college education.
From where do they get the audacity and courage to storm into the offices of senior officers and interview political leaders when their education is rudimentary ?
Even members of clerical staff in any government department are supposed to be graduates essentially.
Further such news gathering portals be brought under tax net.
And their accounts and fundings be made mandatory for disclosure.
Moreover in this din ironically the mainstream media including local dailies here are struggling hard to find readership and viewership in the present scenario.
Seemingly they have been rendered insignificant and redundant with little sale of their printed copies.
As there are unauthorized and raw newsbreaks live on unauthorized facebook pages the reputed media houses are little sought after the very next day.
And allegedly such ignorant and little educated mobile journalists of the present times often look intellectualy poor in displaying their proper journalistic skills.
Also their assent and pronunciation mirrors their level.
Lastly what if the Department of Information & Public Relations J&K conducts a screening test of all these facebook journalists.
How many shall pass ?
Unarguably they won’t even be able to answer the basics of newswriting techniques including requisite ethics of journalism and press laws.
Their ham-handed approach has allegedly sensationalized everything and resultantly social crime is on the rise.
Too much news causes noise.
Let’s stop this “noise” from unauthorized and irrelevant sources.
And let proper news establishments be allowed to function in a better manner and uncrowded.
Let there be an end to confusion.
The unauthorized and unregistered facebook pages, social media channels & web portals gathering & disseminating news be immediately audited.
And professional credentials of such mobile journalists be checked before allowing them to continue.
(Author is Gold Medalist in Mass Communication & Journalism from Kashmir University)