Citizen journalism has gone to the extreme

Recently in Kasarani, Nairobi area, a school girl was kidnapped on her way home from school. She was identified as Liz. She was later found raped, murdered and her body dumped near a river. A few days later, was her funeral. Someone shared a picture of her lying in a coffin and dressed in a white dress that looked like that of a bride.

A couple of days later, a lady in her third year of study was visited by her ex-boyfriend. She was living in a rented house near the campus. It is not clear what transpired between the couple but the next day, she was found dead. Her boyfriend was nowhere to be found. It is alleged that he had strangled her and escaped in the mid of the night. The neighbors alerted the police and as the body was being taken to the mortuary, someone took pictures and shared them on WhatsApp. Before long, they had spread like bushfire.

Citizen journalism has broken all rules and codes of conduct in the field of journalism. People post disturbing and sometimes traumatizing pictures, videos, and images. Social media is meant to entertain and not hurt or frustrate. Any media posted on these sites does not get deleted or lost, it is permanent. When a victim of an unfortunate occurrence comes across media related to them years later, they are haunted by them. The pain they went through engulfs them and they somehow start the grieving process again.

For instance, that kid Liz, whose picture of her corpse was on Facebook. It may take a long time for the family to get over of her death. They may even seek counselling services to be able to accept and move on. Then when everything is slowly falling into place, they come across that picture. And worse, that which was taken on the day she was being laid to rest.

For a long time now, I am concerned that citizens do not censor the visual news they share on social media. Every person is competing to share news and in the process, they go beyond the line. Nobody remembers that they could be breaking terrible news to someone else and that the news must be given a soft landing to avoid serious repercussions.

While the internet has made things easier for journalists, the problems of anonymity have surfaced. Individuals who were previously unheard can now express their dissent without fear of authoritative criticism. There are also very high chances that this anonymity will be abused.

There being no editors to keep these writers in check, Citizen Journalism needs to be bound by rules and a code of ethics. Citizens engaging in it need to understand the guidelines that must be followed to publish news.