Can TV journalists survive the onslaught of the social media revolution? Is it just a matter of time before this social media revolution topples TV news broadcasters from the top of news? Survival starts by recognising that there is a new news order.
So says Lyse Doucet, the Canadian journalist and esteemed TV reporter who is the BBC's chief international correspondent. She was the keynote speaker at the annual Royal Television Society Lecture 2012 with her absolutely fascinating disection on this pressing topic which is broadcast on BBC World News (TopTV 400 / DStv 400) this weekend.
Lyce Doucet's incredibly insightful hour long speech is too long to fully transcribe and would be inappropriate for this format, so I've carefully transcribed and edited her simply must-read talk to try and reflect the bulk of what she said as accurately as possible.
Here is what viewers saw Lyse Doucet share in her talk at the Royal Television Society Lecture 2012:
"The DNA of news is changing. Breaking news stories now come to us on our phones, and our computers as well as our TV's. Social media is at the heart of all the big stories."
"It's transformed our speed and space for news; the way we source and inform and deliver it. Now we all have instant access to overwhelming amounts of information. How should TV journalists harness this astonishing resource? Or does this social media revolution spell the end for broadcast TV news?"
"The stories themselves are being shaped and changed by a new generation of citizen journalists. They don't work for mainstream media. News is now breaking at the speed of life."
Do we admit defeat in this age old battle to be first?
"So what about us then, from the world of broadcast TV journalists? Where do we stand in the midst of a revolution where the people have new power? We're the leaders; news leaders. We're choosing the stories, filming, recording, editing, broadcasting the news. You're the audience, waiting for our news. What do we do now?"
"Do we take to our television trenches and say: 'We're bigger. We're better.' Or do we say that we're joining forces with the social media revolution, and that we're all on the same side now? Or do we admit defeat in this age old battle to be first with the news? The answer is about nothing less than our own survival."
"It's very hard for anyone now to say: "I didn't know it was happening.' Will we still ever get the story out first? And does that mean the end for broadcast journalist? A lot of news now is in the hands of the people - quite literally. So what is our future if so much has changed, and keeps changing?"
"About three years ago, one of my editors told us: You should all be on Twitter and Facebook. I refused. Too busy. No use to me; no use to my journalism. What can I possibly say in those tiny tweets? Facebook? For teenagers. A few months later came my first social media moment. Iran, June 2009, the presidential election.
"We were sitting in the BBC Tehran office, waiting for reaction on the streets to the election results. Some of us instinctively headed to the desk at the far end of the office. The others headed for the sofas in the middle. The one group was racing to check the latest news wires; the others social media. Most of the people checking social media were the younger people in the room. Those hunched over their computer terminals and much-loved wire services were people like me. Guess who found out first what was happening out on the streets ..."
"Yet I still wasn't completely sold. But you cannot ignore the growing impact of social media. In Iran social media became virtually the only way we could see and be a part of what was happening."
The unprecedented power of social media
"Many of us now say we couldn't have covered these events across Africa and the Middle East and beyond [Arab Spring] if we weren't following the blur of posts by activists. For activists, for analysts and for TV correspondents following these unprecedented events, there is no question that the unprecedented power of social media was an essential tool."
"The conversation is huge. Twitter now has 500 million users worldwide. There's some 340 million message a day. But can you always be sure who is tweeting? Every newsroom is now trying to keep up with this fast-changing news world, struggling to establish ground rules for their own journalists posting their own social media messages."
We will no longer always be first with the news
"Is it just a matter of time before this social media revolution topples us from the top of news? Survival starts by recognising there is a new news order. Now we will no longer always be first with the news. Twitter will get there first. Now we won't always get the first compelling videos. Facebook or YouTube may show them before we do. It doesn't mean the downfall of the regime; our regime and the way of new broadcasting."
"Strip away this new-fangled technology, this incessant stream of information, and what is it all about? Authority. Journalism. Storytelling."
"While everything has changed, nothing has changed. In our business, the story and the storyteller still matter. It's the faces. The much-followed and the much-appreciated TV news correspondents, the best in the business, who have been on our TV screens and in our homes for as long as anyone can remember, and the new faces who keep emerging."
"Perhaps there is something that's reassuring - a reality check if you'd like - of putting aside this constantly shifting and sometimes confusing kaleidoscope of the internet for something more solid; more trusted: the TV programmes and correspondents that have stood the test of time. Speed is only one part of the news. Above all we need accuracy."
"Any news broadcaster worth anything at all would rather be second with the news and right, rather than first and wrong."
"In a global village awash with tweets and blogs and posts and instant video clips, who do you trust? The people who have to get it right in order to survive. And that's what the strong viewing figures for broadcast news is telling us: A social media revolution could have signaled the end of broadcast news, but instead its become its greatest confirmation."
"So how do we keep that trust? The best way is to be there - on the ground, talking face-to-face, feeling the heat, eating the dust, talking to everyone and anyone who can help clarify a complicated story: that is journalism."
We have to keep confirming that we should be watched
"Journalism is no longer an exclusive club, enjoyed and practised by a few. We now co-habit a much wider and more open space. We keep an eye on social media, and they keep an eye on us. Our monopoly on delivering the news has been broken."
"There's always been a saying in our business: 'You're only as good as your next story'. We have to keep confirming that we should be watched and listened to - for our editorial judgement, for our talent to inform and entertain, and because you still trust us."
"The history of television news has been written on a canvass of ever-changing technology, ever growing threats; ever greater opportunities. Now it's confronting a challenge so great, it seems to threaten the end of broadcast news. But in this revolution of social media we can be on the right side of history, but only if we approach it as we do all the rest of our news - by trying to understand to understand it; by trying to get it right."
