NEW MEDIA ASSIGNMENT.

A critical look at the trends of how the use of the social media has dominated the dissemination of information and news stories have push the journalism profession to the edge of collapsing. An instance the use of the social media such as twitter ,Facebook , BlogSpot and the likes in transferring messages across the media which is much fast and accessible as compared to the of the main stream journalism where messages are sent across with the use electronic, waves where its operate based on it reach coverage. Hence information sent across using the social media gets down well with the audience due to its wide range of coverage and its accessibility in view with the traditional media which is extensively used by the mainstream professionals.

Innovation has been the core element of this era, it is frequently said that society is living in an information age; hence it has pave the way for the provision of diversities of information technologies world over. These technologies ranges from phone, social networking to other devices such printers, multiple voice recorders that have boost the effect of good communication all over. In the view of this inventions led to the rise of the term citizen journalism, where ordinary individual have the edge to send news stories via the above mentioned social networking.

With rise of citizen journalism due to the advent of social media , a core element of new media, for the purpose of understanding , we love to fully expand on the term, how its personnel’s operate , it merits and demerit, and how it affect the activities of traditional media and lastly how to tackle these effects

A citizen is an individual who has the legal right to stay in a country. Citizen journalism is different from civic or community journalism, where the latter is perform by professionals ,however, to the ordinary man on the street, the former simply refers to an individual who send messages or information via the internet using the social media such Facebook, BlogSpot about an issue of concern for consumption of the general public. Aside the above basic knowledge of the term, other school of thoughts have come out with different definition to this concept. Courtney C  Radsch a school of thought,  sees term to mean an alternative and activist form of newsgathering and reporting that functions outside mainstream media institutions, often as response to the shortcoming in the professional journalistic practices but is driven by different objectives and ideals and relies on alternative sources of legitimacy than traditional journalism. Also Jay Rosen proposes the term as’’ when the people formerly known as audience employ the press tools they have in their possession to inform one another’. From the definitions above, citizen journalism can be term as participatory or democratic journalism where the view of any concern citizen is taken into consideration as far as is news worthy. Also it can be ascertain the term as individuals taking the role traditional journalist by collecting, reporting, analysing and disseminating information via the social network.

Citizen journalist using the social media to play the journalistic role poses a threat to the traditional media.

''It is very possible that the near future many witness the extinction of print media corporations, in favor of digital media corporations was only the beginning of a much larger shift. Though many people do still read news online that has been produced by traditional outlets, many users are now expressing that they feel the traditional outlets are 'too slow' or that their reporting has 'too much of an agenda'. While this attitude towards traditional media has been around for a long time, the prevalence of mobile devices that can record pictures, video and have constant internet connections, combined with the growing popularity of social networking sites has actually made it possible for people to produce and share news themselves''.(Jayson Demers)

social media and traditional media

 

WHY IS IT CONSIDERED AS A THREAT

Social media’s reach is wider than that of the traditional media. An example is that, a person might get into contact with an issue and reports it on Facebook. The message cuts across worldwide and different people from different places get to know about that issue unlike a traditional or mainstream media who in its operations might report on an issue and that would not have a wider coverage like that of the social media.

Also, advertising is much cheaper on social media than in the traditional media.  Now goods and services are advertised on Facebook, twitter, and on individual’s blog sites. It is well known that most traditional media houses depend on advertising for survival. Now that people choose to advertise on social media, the traditional media is affected financially.

Social media helps bring out creativity in the individual or citizen. Individuals who report via Facebook, blogs, twitter etc., don’t report only words but also attach videos and audio files and images which explain his or her reportage and makes it lively than that of the traditional media where you are restricted to a particular format.

 Some of the weakness of citizen journalism is their lack of training, personal interest and copy wright issues.

Professional journalism are properly trained to understand the libel law which regulates the style of writing for public consumption, hence they (journalist) knows what is lawful and unlawful in connection to the what is news worthy or not. An instance is during the recent presidential petition in Ghana; almost all the convicted of libel contempt were either not properly trained journalist or have not full grasps of the libel law. Another disadvantage of citizen journalism is the probability of the individual being bias, thus to manipulate the information to suit his or her course.  An example is the Boston Marathon bombing where a citizen journalism wrongly accused some individuals as the culprits of the properly to satisfy his or her on desires hence causing huge tragedy for innocent people and also slowing down police investigation.  Lastly the threat place on them by the copy right law, where individual use their information without their knowledge either to advantage or not.`   

HOW THE TRADITIONAL MEDIA SHOULD STARTEGISE TO MEET THE CHANGING TREND

The traditional media are now employing new media strategies in their way of disseminating news. They are now using the social media to interact with its audience. An example is that, most media houses employ social media representatives to help circulate their issues and get feedback as soon as possible.

Most of the reportage by citizen journalist via social media are rumours. Some turn out to be false since there is no censoring.  The traditional media could use their own social media to correct those rumours.

An example is an instance when an ex-footballer called Mohammed Polo tweeted that ‘’ I think Kelvin Prince Boateng is not committed to the Black stars’’. A journalist called Ransford Frimpong Prempeh debunked it using proper journalistic approach i.e. researching on issue. He also did that via the social media.

To conclude, as it is popularly said that two heads are always better than one head and also, interdisciplinary approach is key to academic success. Based on the information presented above, we propose the traditional to take advantage of the invention of the social media to meet their handicap of information outrage and its accessibility.

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 REFERENCES

http://www.newmedia.org/what-is-new-media.html

http://www.socialmediadefined.com/what-is-social-media/

 http://socialmediatoday.com/chris-measures/1430031/rise-citizen-journalism

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/jayson-demers/how-social-media-is-suppo_b_3239076.html

WATER-BORNE DISEASES

There are a lot of diseases around us and they all have their own ways of affecting creatures. There is air- borne diseases i.e. diseases Caused by inhaling polluted or contaminated air, and water- borne diseases.

Water-borne diseases are diseases caused by drinking of contaminated water.  Infection commonly results during bathing, washing, drinking, in the preparation of food, or the consumption of food thus infected.   

Various forms of waterborne diarrheal disease probably are the most prominent examples, and affect mainly children in developing countries; according to the World Health Organization, such disease account for an estimated 4.1% of the total DALY global burden

of disease, and cause about 1.8 million human deaths annually.

The World Health Organization estimates that 88% of that burden is attributable to unsafe water supply, sanitation and hygiene.

Contaminated water contains micro organisms that harm the human system whenever they come into contact with it. The term "waterborne disease" is reserved largely for infections that predominantly are transmitted through contact with or consumption of infected water. With this assertion, we could say malaria is also a water-borne disease. This point is very arguable.

Ideas about this argument vary. According to some scholars, it is a common practice

to refer diseases such as malaria as "waterborne” just because mosquitoes have aquatic phases in

their life cycles, or because treating the water they inhabit happens to be an effective strategy in

control of the mosquitoes that are the vectors. Others think otherwise.

Some of the water- borne diseases are, Anemia, Cholera, Diarrhea, Dracunculiasis, Hepatitis, Hookworm infection, Malaria, Onchocerciasis, Polio, Ring Worm or Tinea, Scabies, Schistomiasis, Trachom, Trichuriasis,Typhoid etc.

People drinking contaminated water

The above mentioned diseases are very harmful to human especially when he gets into contact with contaminated or polluted water.

Water borne diseases as we all know is very harmful and can have an impact or effect on the person infected, people around that person and also the economy entirely. Water-borne diseases are curable yet one could lose his or her life as a result. An infected person goes through pain. Those around him or her also go through some kind of trauma.  The economy as a whole is also affected when water-borne disease is at its peak or on the rise.

NB: Waterborne diseases can have a significant impact on the economy, locally as well as internationally. People who are infected by a waterborne disease are usually confronted with related costs and not seldom with a huge financial burden. This is especially the case in less developed countries. The financial losses are mostly caused by e.g. costs for medical treatment and medication, costs for transport, special food, and by the loss of manpower. Many families must even sell their land to pay for treatment in a proper hospital. On average, a family spends about 10% of the monthly households’ income per person infected.

This i think is a very big disadvantage. Appropriate measures ought to be put in place to avoid these diseases. I will address them in my next post.

SOURCES OF WATER

             SOURCES OF WATER

Life on earth would not have been possible without the presence of water. Water covers the biggest portion of the earth. The earth is therefore just a small portion of the planet earth. Aside its dominance in terms of proportion on the earth surface, it is also fund below the earth surface and also in the air as vapour. The human body need water to survive. Water constitutes about 70%  of the human body. The body of all plants and animals also contain water.

Water has many sources. The bible says God created water Genesis 1verse 6 and verse 9-10; (And God said, let there be a firmament in the water above and the water below) verse 9 (let the water below be gathered together into one place) verse 10 He called the dry land earth and the gathering together of the waters, he called sea. Christians throw more light on this issue and even state another point that God makes the rain fall. Moslems have divergent views about the sources of water .

According to Muslims, the Qur’an talks about the matter and also referred to the source of water: Surat Al-Mu’’minun-verse 8(And we sent down from the sky water (rain) in (due) measure, and we gave it lodging in the earth,and verily, we are able to take it away. This verse stipulates that the water inside the earth such as the groundwater is the rains, and this is scientifically proven. Another verse is Surat A-Hijr- verse 22 (We send the wind fertilizing then cause the water to descend from the sky and we give it to you to drink and its not you who are the owners of its store). According to the Qur’an, water is stored inside the earth from the water of rain. This is scientifically proven.

We have natural sources of water and artificial or man-made sources of water. Example of natural sources of water are;  Rainwater, oceans, lakes, rivers, streams, ponds and springs. Dams, wells, tube wells, hand-pumps, canals, etc are artificial or man-made sources of water.

There is an exception to the above. That is, lakes as mentioned earlier are a natural source of water but there are instances where some lakes are made artificially. An example is the Volta Lake in Ghana.

 

This is a picture of the volta lake in Ghana. It is an artificial lake made to provide hydro-electric power.

Rain water collects on the earth in the form of surface water and underground  water. Surface water refers to water present on the surface of the earth. Examples are lakes, rivers, oceans,streams, etc. Water in the lakes and rivers come from the rain and melting of snow from the mountain. Rivers flow into the sea

When it rains, some rain water seeps through the pores in the soil unto the non-porous rocks below the earth surface. This is called underground water. Underground water can be obtained by digging wells, sinking tube wells, etc.

 

This is a picture of rain drops falling on the ground.