Catfish journalism?

By Observer

Jomo Thomas in one of his recent columns, awarded Kenton Chance of iWitness News, the “Chatoyer Award for Journalistic courage”. This was in response to a masterful investigative piece that turned the lights on what is now known as “Huffles Gate”. The importance of journalism in any democracy cannot be understated. It has an impact on the public, and on the lives of those it reaches.  

Then this past week, we listened to a discussion on one morning radio programme where the authenticity of a writer on another local online media/blog outlet was being questioned. After that morning’s discussion, we had our team do some investigation. As many would know, computer publishing applications or websites usually start off with the use of a template. That template often has sample photos and text to guide the creator. You would also find photos on different brochures and so on. Having said that, here’s what we found, in relation to that morning’s discussion. You may visit these two links to see what we found. For convenience we have included a screenshot of what can be found on following each of the links.

Link 1

Link 2

You may make of these links whatever you wish.
We believe that if an entity is going to present to the audience, a non-opined piece in its own name, that it should be authentic. The writer should be authentic, for fear of losing credibility if it’s important at all. We now live in an age of social media where almost anything goes, but we must also remember the power of the internet and new technology. It is as bad and dangerous, or as good and powerful in the right hands.

The light will get turned on in the dark. It’s usually only a matter of time. While Jomo quoted George Orwell in his piece, we will quote Hunter S. Thompson.

“As far as I’m concerned, it’s a damned shame that a field as potentially dynamic and vital as journalism should be overrun with dullards, bums, and hacks, hag-ridden with myopia, apathy, and complacence, and generally stuck in a bog of stagnant mediocrity.” — Hunter S Thompson

We will add here that it is a damn shame when journalism is used to catfish the audience.

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