January 10, 2008 | Read Time: 1 minute
Aid groups and journalists need to rethink their relationship, writes Glenda Cooper, a fellow at the Reuters Institute, in Oxford, on the Reuters Alertnet blog. The distinction between the two has started to blur, she says, with potentially harmful consequences.
Aid organizations have “pushed the idea of press officers as ‘fireman’ reporters – not just facilitating media requests but attempting to influence the news agenda by writing and filming themselves,” she writes.
Charity workers are appearing in the pages of newspapers — not just as authors of opinion pieces, but on the news and feature pages, with their work appearing under the names of staff writers. Broadcasters are presenting video footage shot by aid groups as their own.
Journalists, meanwhile, are increasingly sounding like humanitarian workers. “For example, one told me he hoped that his reporting would help raise £100,000 for the 2005 South Asia quake,” says Ms. Cooper.
Why is this a problem? Viewers and readers need to know the sources of what they’re reading and watching, says Ms. Cooper. “An agency may be doing a very good job — but if they’ve filmed themselves you are hardly going to get any other story,” she writes.
What do you think? Is this a trend — and if so is it a positive sign? Click on the “comments” link below to join the discussion.
