Does the proliferation of 24 hour news media across the Middle East mean there will be a greater chance of helping to increase democratisation in the region? According to some speakers at We Media that is unlikely and remains one of several great misperceptions that persist in the West about Arab media.

Michael Kraig, director of policy analysis and dialogue at the Stanley Foundation, a not-for-profit organisation in the United States, said the growth of civil society, fuelled by the development of new media providers, could empower nationalism in the Middle East.

“The Western perception that if you have an expanded civil society, free speech and media, you’ll have democratisation that is more friendly to the U.S. position,” he said, speaking at a session on the Middle East. “That’s an unfortunate misconception. The growth of civil society can empower nationalism, not just in regards to national governments but also to external interveners in their own affairs.” 

Rami Khouri, of the Lebanon Daily Star, agreed that there remained a “huge gap” in accurate understanding of Arab media. This, he added, is partly because the message that the media carries is not one that outsiders happen to agree with.

He described three great misperceptions about Arab media - that it incites anti-American feeling, that it is a mouthpiece for Osama bin Laden and other related groups and that it is of poor quality. None of these perceptions were correct, he insisted.

Khouri said:” The first misperception is that Arab media deliberately incite anti-West and anti-American feeling. In fact the Arab media is a reflection of public opinion and sentiments in society. There are ideas coming out of Arab satellite stations that are critical of Arab regimes because that sentiment is reflected in society.

“There is also a perception that Al Jazeera is a mouthpiece for bin Laden and terrorist groups because they put their tapes on air. The fact is, these are newsworthy tapes.”

Questions surrounding the quality of Arab satellite stations are also a myth, he said, adding that he would put his money where his mouth is:”I have spent the last five to six years, every night, watching Arab and Western satellite stations. I watch them all and am prepared to bet a double falafel sandwich with sauce or dinner at Simpson’s in the Strand that al Jazeera’s news coverage of events in the Middle East is more complete and more balanced than any American station, or any Western station. You get both sides.

“There is a comprehensiveness and integrity to Arabic satellite coverage that you don’t get in the West. Sure, they have only been on air for six to seven years, so there are still some things that need to improve.”

Is the Internet a tool that will democratise all who use it? Is the Internet likely to threaten communist rule in China? Is the West’s concern about democratisation of the Internet in China an obsession that hinders analysis of all the other changes going on there? These were some of the issues that opened discussions at the second day of the We Media event, held at Reuters global headquarters in London.

Many Western commentators predicted just a few years ago that the Internet would spell the end of communist rule but there remain no signs of a mass political movement organising itself online to bring this about.

The question raised during a Q&A session at We Media was to what extent censorship, as an obsession of Western media, means that study of the Internet in China is skewed. Does the Wests concern about censorship have a disproportionate effect on the way that the Internet in China is perceived?

Some delegates participating in the Q&A session suggested that it was wrong for Western observers to apply their own standards to the Chinese market and to patronise Internet users there for reluctance to use the medium to circulate political views.

David Schlesinger, Reuters managing editor and a former bureau chief in Beijing, observed that while the Internet has begun to take off as a tool for entertainment and business in China, it has not yet done so for politics.

He said, however, that it was important to put the discussion in some perspective because the number of active internet users is still a small proportion of the population as a whole.

He added: When you talk about the digital divide, it’s there and it’s important but in China you’re talking about a thin layer of the urban elite and within that you’re talking about a very thin layer that wants to talk about politics. The rest of them are not talking about politics.’

Schlesinger suggested that this could be an unstated bargain between the state and individuals. He said:

There is a compact that the Chinese state has made with its people in that you can express yourself through economics or culture but not politics. It is an unstated bargain that most people have accepted. It does affect people but it doesnt effect a movement.

Rebecca MacKinnon, the co-founder of the citizens’ media blogging operation Global Voices, questioned how problematic the censorship problems which exist in China may prove for Western companies. All Chinese companies are expected to monitor their services for political content - how big a problem is this, she wondered.

Marcus Xiang, who launched mobile blogging service provider PDX.CN in 2004, rejected suggestions that this would prove seriously problematic and gave a sense of his own experience as an Internet entrepreneur in the Chinese market. Users are not interested in politics, they are more interested in personal experiences. Im comfortable with the current government, we have a great economy, great opportunities. I can go to the U.S. to develop my business but I dont want to. I want to stay in China to develop my business. The Chinese government wants to take it gradually.

Xiang added that like Chinese companies, Western companies, such as Google, who are moving into the domestic Chinese market, simply have to follow local customs and laws.

My suggestion to the management of Google, is that they should comply with the law. When the law changes, you can change your operation. Right now, as a business, Google complies with the policies and laws in place.

     ”World Have Your Say” from the BBC’s World Service was coming live from the We Media forum, offering a taste of participatory media on a global scale. The programme aims to engage ordinary people with newsmakers by enabling them to discuss current affairs events that have a direct impact on their lives. Topics debated included a day of bloodshed in Iraq, and - because it came from the We Media forum - how people around the world are using new media.
    Many participants said they used blogs as one source of daily information, in addition to mainstream media. But who do they trust - mainstream media, bloggers or citizen journalists? Not just one source is the answer.
    Using more than one source of information thanks to new technology was cited by many as a key development in how they used the media rather than trusting one source, a variety of news and views helps them to form their opinion about what is happening in the world. Reuters Editor Political and General News Paul Holmes said: “No news organisation in the history of the media has had a monopoly on the truth. What is different today is that there are many different voices.”
    An earlier debate about blogging and citizen journalism gave some bloggers in the audience a sense of us (the bloggers) and them (the mainstream media).
    But as one participant pointed out “It’s not just one or the other.”
    “Comparing blogs to mainstream media is completely meaningless,” said another participant in the audience in London. “They can’t be directly compared because they serve a different purpose. With blogs you establish a relationship over time. You never get that with a journalist.”
    The BBC’s director of global news Richard Sambrook told the conference: “We easily get trapped in either/or mindset: Mainstream versus bloggers. Get over it. We live in a remixed, mashed-up world.”
    The forum also debated truth and accuracy in the media.
    George Brock of The Times newspaper said they loved to hear peoples
stories. But they had to be newsworthy and true. At the end of the day, people want reliability and accuracy, he argued.
    The message was echoed by the BBCs director of news Helen Boaden.
    “Witness accounts do not necessarily give you an objective, factual picture. They give you the truth as they see it,” she said. ”The role of journalism is to sift facts and give you a truthful and factual picture.”
    Rachel North was caught up in on the bomb attacks on London’s transport network and started blogging about her experience.She told the audience that her blogging had been driven by an overwhelming desire to tell her story. Citizen journalism, she said, is “telling stories of the people, for the people, by the people”.

    Actor and activist Richard Dreyfuss asked the audience how in a world of instant, non-stop news people have time to think.
    He argued for the need for reason, debate and logic. He spoke about what he called “instantaneous knowledge and the loss of rumination, patience and simply thinking things through.
    The trend towards 24/7 news is being accelerated by technology, Dreyfuss said.
    “I applaud the technology that leads us all here, he said. “But I dont applaud the self-imposed blindness when we overlook the potential damage this technology can do.
    “And this is something everyone in broadcasting should start thinking about. The technology is demanding that we re-think how to think.”

Speakers at We Media differed in their view of who would survive the digital revolution, but all agreed that the transition would be a bumpy ride.

How traditional media companies act will decide whether they manage to survive the transition into the digital economy, key speakers at We Media  said.

According to Mark Thompson, director-general of the BBC, the move onto the internet was disruptive, but the next shift online will be “very profound and very challenging”. He said:

“We are seeing a second digital wave that’s far more profound and disruptive than the first wave, into a world where the media audience moves effortlessly from device to device. The old idea of broadcasters assuming that the right of the audience is to sit there and take it and be grateful for it is over.”

“There are people working in our industry who still don’t have computers and mobiles and imagine that these are the possessions of a few anoraks in Western society. In fact, you can drive for hours across Africa to get to water yet see many people there with mobile phones.”

Timothy Balding, director-general of the World Association of Newspapers, agreed, and admitted that newspaper proprietors had to step up to the challenge.

He said: “The web revolution has been a salutary kick up the pants for newspaper companies. They have been conservative, complacent and had the market to themselves. They were slow to take up the challenge but it’s well underway now. Newspaper websites are among the most consulted sites in most markets. some have really captured the blogging market too.”

Asha Oberoi, director of multi-media product development at the Telegraph Group, publishers of The Daily Telegraph newspaper, insisted that newspapers were not sitting still. She added: “We’re fighting back, becoming a multi-media organisation. We’re a real threat and can do exciting new forms of content. We are working hard to see how we can build on what we are already doing. I think people should be afraid of print organisations. We have readers’ trust, we have got so much going for us in the opinion stakes. If we can leverage that into the multi-media world we will be very powerful beasts.”

The BBC’s Mark Thompson said that the emergence of citizen journalists, bloggers and other forms of media would require traditional media players to change the way they operate. He said: “The media which used to be conveniently shaped by us into not quite one-size-fits-all in different chunks for lage groups is going to change. It’s going to be shaped in communities by them. To me, the challenge for us is how to play a useful and effective role as enablers.”

Nikesh Arora, vice-president of European operations at Google, questioned whether old media companies can embrace the new without it affecting their core values. He explained: “Today old media stands for certain things. The challenge is whether the BBC or any old media organisation tries to embrace citizen journalism. It is very difficult to do that and ensure your brand is not affected by it. The moment you try to edit it they’ll start screaming that this is an old beast trying to stop what I’m doing.”

Are the opinions presented in newspapers an obstacle to readers’ trust or are readers sophisticated enough to filter what they read and arrive at the truth - or a version of it? The issue emerged during discussions at the We Media forum and opinions were mixed.
David Brain, European president and chief executive officer at the public relations company Edelman, believes that they are not an obstacle. Readers, he believes, are able to filter the information they receive from their favourite paper - and arrive at the “truth” for themselves.
He said: “People buy the Times or the Mirror, which have different perspectives but their readers are still comfortable with that. They can interpret what they are reading and deduce the truth. I don’t think it’s true that people accept at face value the perspective they are given.”
A European Commission representative at the event, however, disputed this view.
Dominic Brett, head of outreach and regional affairs at the European Commission in London, said he strongly disagreed with the view that newspapers or other news consumers are able to filter opinion from news.
“People can’t filter this if they have not got a straight picture to start with. In the UK people do trust organisations like the BBC or Reuters. But I am less convinced than [David Brain] that people can filter news from papers like the Daily Mail. Readers are simply not in a position to do that, they cannot possibly do it unless they have the full picture to start with. If the agenda is so skewed in the media, how can anyone make an informed decision and thereby filter what they hear?”
Brett said that the European Commission found reporting on European issues in the UK press was a “total hindrance” to ensuring that public opinion was informed.
“We are not trying to stifle debate but reporting inaccuracy is a greater hindrance here than anywhere else. The UK is not the most Eurosceptic country in Europe - that honour belongs to Austria - but the constant misreporting of facts has a detrimental effect on a democratic way of life in the UK. The scorn of the media for the EU generally is very damaging, not least because so much of daily life is now decided in Brussels.”
“The fact that decisions in the EU are always endorsed by the UK Government is neatly overlooked. It would do the electorate in this country a big favour if we could have more factual reporting, so people could make their own minds up. A debate would then be possible. Until then, what happens is that everything gets blamed on Brussels and how the UK adopts laws is conveniently forgotten.”

National television is the most trusted news source, ahead of newspapers and public radio, but the Internet is gaining ground, especially among the young, according to a major worldwide survey of trust in the media.

The poll, conducted in 10 countries by GlobeScan on behalf of Reuters, the BBC and the Media Center, found that 82 percent of 10,230 adults questioned rated national television as their most trusted news source overall.

That compared with 75 percent who trusted national or regional newspapers, 67 percent who said they trusted public radio and 56 percent who opted for international satellite television.

Despite the popularity of the Internet in more developed countries and the emergence of “web-logging” or blogging, neither fared well in the survey, according to Globescan President Doug Miller.

“The Internet is gaining ground among the young,” he said. “The jury is still out on ‘blogs’ — just as many people distrust them as trust them,” he told Reuters.

The research found that just 25 percent of respondents said they trusted blogs, while 23 percent said they did not trust them.

Dean Wright, managing editor of consumer media at Reuters, said he believed blogs would eventually come of age, as newspapers themselves once did.

Wright added: “It’s a relatively recent phenomenon that people believe what’s written in a newspaper. One hundred years ago, newspapers were incredibly partisan: they were the blogosphere of their day.

“There are already blogs that people trust and quality will win out once people realise which ones they can trust.”

MARCH OF DEMOGRAPHICS

According to the research, television is still seen as the most “important” news source (56 percent), followed by newspapers (21 percent), Internet (9 percent) and radio (9 percent).

Miller said that although the Internet attracted a lesser score than television or newspapers, it was possible to see a clear change afoot in public attitudes.

He added: “The poll clearly shows that the march of demographics will occur vis-à-vis online sources of news.”

Online sources were, for example, the first choice among 19 percent aged between 18 and 24, compared to just 3 percent in the 55-64 age range.

“But although it is changing, our research perhaps suggests that this change in Internet usage may not be as fast as some who have been investing in it believe,” Miller said.

Rolling news television stations have also come of age, he believes.

Americans who were asked to name their most trusted specific news sources plumped for Fox News (mentioned by 11 percent) and CNN (also 11 percent), with others some way behind. ABC, for example, was chosen by 4 percent, as was NBC.
Miller said the brands chosen did not simply reflect trust. “Trust has a number of elements,” he added. “It is not just about objectivity but about a sense of what people most use, what they like.

“Clearly there is a loyal audience for Fox and CNN but the figures themselves are modest.”

Britain may have a sophisticated media industry but it also has some of the most sceptical consumers, with nearly two-thirds (64 percent) believing the media does not report all sides of the story.

A 10-country opinion poll for Reuters, the BBC and the Media Center found British and U.S. consumers out on a limb when it comes to public levels of trust in the media.

Overall trust in the media in Britain has bounced back over the past four years, from a low of 29 percent trusting in 2002 to 47 percent today. But this is still below the 10-country average of 63 percent.

Americans emerged as the most critical of the news media’s balance, with 69 percent disagreeing that the media reports all sides of a story.

A similar proportion, 68 percent, thought the media covered too many “bad news” stories.

Polling company GlobeScan questioned 10,230 adults in the 10 countries — the UK, U.S., Brazil, Egypt, Germany, India, Indonesia, Nigeria, Russia and South Korea — and interviewed 1,000 UK residents.

COUNTRIES AT WAR

GlobeScan President Doug Miller told Reuters he was surprised by the poll’s findings in Britain and the U.S, where levels of public trust in the media appear much lower than in developing markets.

“The UK and the U.S. were outlyers across the 10 countries,” he said. “This reflects the fact that these are sophisticated markets and people are clearly attuned to the media.”

“In this research we did not probe exact reasons for the lower levels of trust, but our instincts as researchers tell us that it’s because the U.S. and UK are two countries at war,” he added.

The low levels of trust may, he said, be related to perceptions in the U.S. that the media is too close to the
government on issues relating to the Iraq war.
“It may have something to do with the pulling away from traditional media that we’re seeing — this move towards the Internet where people can get other perspectives on major stories that they’re not getting from the mainstream media.”

GlobeScan found that 28 percent of consumers have stopped using a certain media source in the past year because it lost their trust. Miller said he believed this presented media organisations with an important lesson.

“I think what we can conclude from that is that trust is a key competitive advantage in the market,” he said.

Television remains the most important news source for UK citizens in a typical week, mentioned first by 55 percent of those questioned. Newspapers were second on 19 percent with radio and Internet next on 12 and 8 percent respectively.

By Astrid Zweynert

LONDON, April 28 (Reuters) - Videos shot in smoke-filled, bombed-out London underground trains, photos of body-strewn roads — the July 7 bombings on London’s transport system brought the arrival of a new advance guard of amateur reporters to Britain.

Media commentators described it as a sea-change in journalism as mobile phone photographers, text messagers and bloggers dominated initial coverage of the bombings that claimed the lives of 52 commuters.

But while the momentous events of July 7 raised public awareness of how eyewitness-generated content can dominate the the mainstream media’s initial coverage of a big story, citizen journalism is still trying to establish itself in Britain.

“It hasn’t got a proper foothold here yet — citizen journalism hasn’t carved out a niche for itself like in the
United States,” Roy Greenslade, a professor of journalism at City University in London and former editor of the Daily Mirror newspaper, told Reuters.

But more and more news reports in the “old media” have taken their lead from submissions by ordinary citizens and a new wave of political bloggers is challenging Britain’s media commentators.

“It helps us tell the story truthfully and accurately,” said BBC Interactivity Editor Vicky Taylor, referring to the BBC’s use of images sent in by witnesses of the London bombings.

Mainstream media owners also have rushed to tap into the phenomenon by setting up blogs written by their own journalists.

But unlike in the United States, where bloggers have claimed credit for major political upsets, including the resignations of broadcaster Dan Rather and Senate Republican leader Trent Lott, Britain’s newspapers remain in charge for now of exposing the misdemeanours of public figures and institutions.

“The citizen journalist here is a snapper who happens to be passing somewhere where something is going on,” Greenslade said. “What we haven’t developed yet is the citizen journalist who goes out and writes and reports.”

NOT MUCH TO BLOG ABOUT?

Like citizen journalism, blogging has received a lot of coverage in the media. Globally, there has been a massive growth of web logs, or personal online journals.

According to Technorati, a search engine for blogs, a new blog is created every second of every day.

But in Britain, despite a rapid uptake in broadband Internet connections, only 2 percent of Internet users publish a blog, a recent survey by the British Market Research Bureau (BMRB) found, while another study said most bloggers quit after three months.

The BMRB also found that only 10 percent, around 2.8 million people, of UK Internet users read blogs.

“There has been disproportionate coverage of blogging — still only a tiny proportion of people publish them,” said Paul Milsom, a senior associate director at the BMRB.

“A lot of media attention has been paid to blogs, which looks a bit overhyped given how few people actually blog,” he told Reuters.

But, as trends in many other countries have shown, bloggers potentially wield a hugely disproportionate influence in setting trends, as those who do publish blogs are more likely to be opinion formers.

“It is definitely set to grow in Britain (but) it will take time to filter through in terms of people having to learn how to publish a blog,” said Milsom.

In the United States, the fastest-growing area of citizen journalism is the so-called “hyper-local” coverage of
high-school sports or petty neighbourhood crime, usually too small even for local newspapers.

That trend is also shaping up in Britain.

“I expect citizen journalism to really take off at regional and local level: citizens reporting about what goes on in their area, on their street,” Greenslade said.

The Press Gazette, a magazine dedicated to UK journalism, is leading the charge in honouring the best in citizen journalism for the first time with its Citizen Journalism Awards, to be announced on July 14.

Among the entries are photographs and films of a local pub siege and of a local teenager being threatened by a knife-wielding man.

By Astrid Zweynert

LONDON, April 27 (Reuters) - Richard Dreyfuss has challenged the establishment for decades and now the maverick actor and activist is taking on the mainstream media.

The Oscar-winning star says an obsession with delivering instantaneous news and images provides too little context for audiences to reflect and understand what is happening in the world.

“There is no room to pause, no room to think,” Dreyfuss, who starred in films ranging from “Jaws” to “Mr Holland’s Opus” told Reuters in a recent telephone interview.

“We don’t build into our system of thoughts the need to explain, the media doesn’t build that into its transmission of knowledge and information.”

That creates what Dreyfuss calls “shaped news” — a version of events according to how the mainstream media want audiences to see what happened, and a violation of journalism’s core value of objectivity.

Citizen journalism is playing a vital part in broadening news coverage, as well as scrutinising professional journalism, Dreyfuss said.

“Information from more than one source is good. I’m totally in favour of it, even if people send propaganda. In the aggregate you can find more truth than in one opinion.”

But despite an explosion in blogs, people’s views of the news is still shaped by what powerful media corporations print, broadcast and put on their Web sites, Dreyfuss, 58, said.

“Do the mainstream media ever tell their readers ‘Don’t believe everything we tell you?’ No, they don’t.”

Dreyfuss said media coverage of the Sept. 11 attacks on the World Trade Center in New York was a pertinent example of how a non-stop supply of images and spot news shaped people’s views.

“The falling Twin Towers — pictures that produced anger, a lot of anger that were sent instantly around the world, they created a need to react.”

“People in Kansas could see the Twin Towers fall at exactly the same instant as in Nigeria and Cairo. Such an instantaneous knowledge of a situation leads to an instantaneous reaction which creates demand for an instantaneous, reflexive response.

“The question is how do you get people to find out more, how do you get people to read not just what they are told to read.”

The power of language is also an important factor in shaping the news.

“The ‘war on terror’ — objection to using this term is dead. It’s become part of our vocabulary, but what does it really mean? You should know more specifically what you are fighting.”

Dreyfuss is eager to point out that he is not anti-technology: “I’m not in love with technology and speed but I don’t want to sound like a luddite.

“We’ve got to be aware of the power of technology and the speed at which it allows us to transmit information.

“You have to encourage prose, analysis and detail — otherwise people will go to war in Iraq and Afghanistan without really knowing why.”

Dreyfuss, who won an Oscar for his performance in “The Goodbye Girl”, has pursued his passion for political and social activism since his college days.

An active opponent of the Vietnam War, he has also worked to promote solutions to the Mideast conflict, campaigned for education and, most recently, has lent his support to a campaign for the impeachment of U.S. President George W. Bush.

He is studying civics and democracy as a senior associate member at St Antony’s College at the University of Oxford. “Civics is no longer taught in the U.S, a sign of a neurosis that is inexplicable,” he said. “Not to teach civics is suicide.

“Reason, logic, civility, dissent and debate — five ancient words that should be taught again and better, at elementary level, so that people know the difference between news and shaped news,” Dreyfuss said.

By Guy Dresser

LONDON (Reuters) - Journalists do not traditionally enjoy a high place in the public esteem, but a new survey has prompted some commentators to suggest that a difference is emerging between attitudes towards print and broadcast media.

Just 16 percent of British adults trust journalists to tell the truth, a study by opinion pollsters Mori found last year.

The figure was even lower than the 20 percent scored by politicians and left journalists at the bottom of the scale, according to Julia Clark, a senior research executive with the polling company.

“We ask what profession people trust most to tell the truth and we have run this survey for several years,” she told Reuters.

“The figures move up and down but the overall trend is unchanged. Journalists as a group remain at the bottom, along with estate agents and used car salesmen.”

Despite Mori’s apparently downbeat findings for journalists in general, television news readers emerge as people that the public would trust to tell the truth.

Of the 2,000 adults questioned, 63 percent gave them the thumbs up, putting them just behind scientists (70 percent), priests (73), judges (76), professors (77), teachers (88) and doctors (91).

Mori’s findings on broadcast media last year are echoed by the annual media literacy report from UK communications regulator Ofcom on April 26.

It found that 78 percent of adults trust television news providers, 76 percent trust radio news and 63 percent trust news Web sites.

The figure for newspapers is 46 per cent.

Justin Lewis, professor of communication at the Cardiff School of Journalism, believes old stereotypes could be to blame.

“When people are asked the question about how far they trust journalists, the image they have is of the foot in the door, the cheque book, the sleaze, the probing into people’s private lives,” he told Reuters.

“But if you ask them about News at Ten it’s different.”

Another academic, Professor Adrian Monck, head of journalism and publishing at City University in London, believes that different regulatory regimes could be responsible.
“The issue of trust is one of those hilarious polling issues but what is it really telling us about journalism? The fact is that in both surveys the figures are higher for the broadcast media than they are for print.

“My inference is that the broadcast media are benefiting from the fact that people know they have to get it right because they, unlike newspapers, are regulated.

“I have argued in the past that it would be useful for the print media in the UK to think about being regulated in the same way as the broadcast media.

“My argument is that if Sky News can manage it with Adam Boulton, then the Times can manage it with their political people,’ Monck said.

Journalists themselves sometimes admit to having a jaundiced view of colleagues.

Investigative journalist Donal Macintyre says that featuring on the gossip pages of tabloid newspapers as well as in front of the camera has given him a different perspective.

“I think it is sad that the public has a view like this of journalists, but it’s not surprising. I distrust about 70 percent of the media.

“Being on the cusp of working as an investigative journalist and crossing the boundary into the world of celebrity, I see what people write about me.

“Sure, in proper publications and on the BBC and Sky News, people understand that journalists are doing their best, but it’s the tabloids people distrust,” he added.

“I think cynicism is deliberately focused here on the lighter end of the media and the audience is right — much of what you read is nonsense.

“Most of the profiles written about me can’t even spell my name right, let alone get other facts down correctly.”