Media 2020 Conference: Citizen Journalism, Social Media and Disaster Reporting

Over the last several years an interesting debate has been going on about the need and reliability of citizen journalism and the information contained in the social media. This collects a huge amount of information, including news, through crowdsourcing. 

Abdulrahman Alhazzaa, President, Saudi Broadcasting Corporation, Saudi Arabia said social media became a very important medium in our everyday life, news and entertainment. He added that most media are having special departments related to social media  nowadays, urging people to keep using social media because it is like a large window. But they should not believe anything, check and double check.

Shanthi Bhaghirathan from Sri Lanka admitted that she  resorted to Twitter to get first hand information  from her country,  in spite  of being a media woman. She went on to say that the digital media phenomenon is on the rise and internet access is omnipresent.

Also during the session Toshiyuki Sato from Japan said broadcasters are working in a tight connection with weather forecasters in order to save lives. The seismograph can predict the areas the next earthquake will strike.