Information superhighway, social media and journalism

The Information Superhighway has been described as “a large electronic network such as the internet used for sending information such as sound, pictures and video quickly in digital form”.

Without the Internet, the information superhighway could not have been possible. The Internet has not been a single invention. This is because nobody brought the Internet into being by deciding to do so and succeeding.

It started with the introduction of electronic computer systems that replaced the old mechanical ones in the 1950s. Along with that has been the invention of the “magic” silicon chip. A thumb-nail size piece of silicon is capable of storing thousands of information signals.

The chip helped to revolutionise the building of the modern computer which replaced huge computer pieces that worked using vacuum tubes and transistors. By the 1960s, packet networking of computers began in the United States, United Kingdom and French computer science laboratories.

The origin of the Internet can be traced to a contract that the US Department of Defence awarded in the early 1960s for packet network computer systems, and creation of ARPANET.

Besides ARPANET, other packet switching networks such as Mark I at NPL, CYCLADES, Merit Network, Tymnet and Telenet, had been introduced early in the 1970s.

The first message transmitted through packet networking was via ARPANET from the computer of Prof. Leonard Klein of the University of California, Los Angeles, in the US – to another network facility at the Stanford Research Institute, also in the US.

ARPANET is said to be the first to develop “protocols for Internet working by joining of multiple networks into a network”. In the 1980s, supercomputing centres with interconnectivity were established in many universities and other research laboratories in the US for military, scientific and academic research.

Through the Internet, it became possible in 1990 to transmit information in sound, picture and video almost instantly to any part of the world. Sending and receiving information via the Internet through the following became popular: electronic mail, instant messaging, voice-over internet protocol, telephone calls and the World Wide Web. The World Wide Web offers forums for discussions, blogs, social networking, electronic banking and electronic shopping.

Commercial Internet service providers including the following made what the information superhighway is today: Amazon.com, Hotmail, Google, Yahoo, Wikipedia, Skype, Facebook, YouTube, Twitter and WikiLeaks.

The information superhighway made possible by merging of computers across the world – carried more than 97 per cent of telecommunicated messages in 2007. The result has been an Information Revolution that created the Information Society.

Social media is a term used to describe all mediums of mass communication provided by the Internet through the information superhighway. Any person who knows how to use a mobile phone or a computer can communicate with another person or a group of persons from and to any part of the world.

Users of the Internet have been described as “citizen journalists”. This is because they can send information to themselves and to the traditional media of mass communication including newspapers, magazines, radio and television.

The dictionary defines “citizen journalism” as “reports and pictures of events recorded by ordinary people and shown on the internet”. The traditional communication media include newspapers, magazines, radio and television.

A “citizen journalist” or a “stringer” as he or she is called in newspaper and news agency journalism, requires no training in journalism to send information to the media houses or to other persons through his or her mobile phone or computer.

Conversely, a professional journalist needs some kind of training – formal or informal – to practice. Formal training is provided by the school of journalism. Informal training takes place at the media houses.

It is, therefore, important to distinguish clearly between information provided by a “citizen journalist” and that of a professional journalist. Last week, failure of a newspaper house and a broadcasting radio station to do just that created problems for them.

The Ghana Bureau of National Investigations (BNI) invited the Editor of the Daily Graphic and the Chief Executive Officer of Citi FM to assist in investigations over a news item carried on their mass media. President John Dramani Mahama surprisingly defended the invitation and questioning of the two persons by the BNI.

The President said the two media houses failed to cross check what was picked from the Internet. He said the BNI had to perform its duty by investigating to establish the veracity of the report.

According to the President, the BNI research and fact finding had yielded dividends – as the true identity of the suspect had been exposed. “We know now for certain that this woman was not in possession of a diplomatic passport while her true identity has also been revealed which should stop the spread of misinformation,” President Mahama added.

The news item picked from the internet concerned a woman by the name, Nayele Ametefeh, who was alleged to hold a Ghanaian passport. She was allegedly arrested at a London airport with a large quantity of cocaine. Further investigations revealed that the woman possessed a Ghanaian and an Austrian passport.

The online news item stated that the woman was a friend to many government officials and that she was to be met on arrival at the London airport by Ghana’s ambassador to the UK.

All such facts were found to be untrue. As far as “citizen journalism” is concerned, “anything goes” applies. In professional journalism, the dictum, “anything goes” does not and must not apply. What must apply all the time – are the fundamental principles and techniques of journalism.