According to Advertising Age, the average US citizen spent 9h35 per day connected to media in 2006 – led by television and radio, then the Internet and newspapers (followed by recorded music, magazines, books, and more).

Badillo goes on to note that these technologies can influence more than journalistic methodology, they can revolutionize content: imagine the difference that a 360 degree omni-camera would have made during the Kennedy assassination, or how a mini-camera can helps reporters to record coverage without being noticed.

The main trouble comes from what TIC have led to: an over-abudance of information. Consequently, this over-abundance causes an attention deficit for the reader, or viewer. In effect, there is more technology and distribution channels, but less actual information production.

Therefore the journalist, the human aspect of the information process, becomes even more essential in making it relevant and giving it quality.

The problem is that the journalist himself or herself is a victim of the TIC over-abundance. The reporter is left with little time to truly analyze or know the information he redistributes. This leads to a confusion between information and knowledge.

Badillo concludes, that TIC has veiled journalists from their primordial role. He quotes cyber journalist Steve Yelvington, former reporter for the Minneapolis Star Tribune.

“We, the newspaper industry, are guilty of spending way too much time, energy and attention on technology (how we do it) and not enough on product vision (what we do)."

Thus, if journalism and journalists remain stuck at a mere technological level, “the society of information is likely to become a society of misinformation,” wrote Badillo.

Therefore, more than ever, the emergence of the TIC gives a great responsibility to the human factor, journalists, who are the only ones with still enough control to distinguish information from misinformation.

As TIC grow in importance, the training and quality of judgement of journalists become essential. At a time when newsrooms are cutting down their staff numbers, and less and less people are in direct contact with the information source, those who are responsible for the transmission of information from scratch to the public have a vital democratic role.

Source: Patrick-Yves Badillo (link in French)