Journalism: Where facts, evidence and accountability matter
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- Our world today treats journalism as a matter of voice once you hear people tells you that you have a good voice or you sound well on microphone, what comes in your mind or the immediate assumption is that you can be a journalist
Dar es Salaam. In a world where everyone can publish, journalism has never been only about having a voice but a commitment to facts. It is about having the discipline to find out what is true.
Today, information moves faster than ever. A post can reach thousands of people within minutes. A video can go viral before anyone asks where it came from. Artificial intelligence can create convincing images, audio and text. And sometimes, an unverified claim can travel much further than the truth.
I remember my mentor in newswriting class from Nukta Africa, Daniel Samson, told me that, “a journalist is not simply someone who tells stories. A journalist asks critical questions: Who said this? What evidence supports the claim? What does the data show? Can the information be independently verified? What context or perspectives are missing from the story?
And he further added that the ‘SO WHAT’ question matters most, because it’s where the intentions of a journalist relies on. These questions may not always produce the fastest story, but they help produce a better one.
Journalism is not about saying what people want to hear. It is about finding and presenting what the evidence shows.
That is why facts matter
Facts give journalism its foundation, interviews provide perspectives and personal opinions, data provides evidence, documents provide records, verification helps separate what is true from what is simply being repeated. So it’s a pattern that leads to good yields in modern journalism.
But facts alone are not enough. Journalists must also explain them in a way ordinary people can understand, avoiding the jargon and professional terms and using the layman language that simplifies hard information.
And this is a major emphasis from our leader and Chief Executive Officer at Nukta Africa Nuzulack Dausen, consistently stresses a point that “data should meant to transform lives not to confuse people, as how Nukta Habari is committed to use data to bring change”
A report may contain important information, but if readers cannot understand what it means for their lives, the journalism has not gone far enough.
Evidence earns trust
I was reminded of this recently during a conversation with my friend and Multimedia Creative Designer at Nukta Africa, Jonas Remmy. He told me that “our world today treats journalism as a matter of voice once you hear people tells you that you have a good voice or you sound well on microphone, what comes in your mind or the immediate assumption is that you can be a journalist”
But journalism is much more than sounding good, a good voice can attract attention.
It’s a reason the industry has noise makers who love what we call ‘Kiki’ and gossip trends rather than informative reporting and solution based journalism that implies data as it’s food to feed on people’s minds.
In the age of AI, this responsibility is becoming even greater
Technology can help journalists analyse large datasets, find patterns, translate information and work faster. But technology cannot replace the journalist’s responsibility to verify, question and exercise judgment.
A machine can generate an answer. A journalist must still ask, Is it true?
That question should remain at the heart of journalism, because journalism is not simply a voice, “It is a commitment to facts, evidence, truth and accountability,” I rest my case.
