Sir Atif Tauqeer shares his experiences related to digital writing and studying journalism in different countries. He tends to explain how journalism in Pakistan differs from journalism in other countries. Sir Atif mentioned that he has worked for Pakistani newspapers as an editor and sub-editor. He has a diverse field of work including stage dramas, radio, theatre and advertisement voiceovers. He also worked for well-known tv channels like GEO and AAJ TV. Since the last 13 years, he has been working with DW which is the 3rd largest media programme after BBC and Voice of America. After a brief introduction, he talks about how digital media works. When we first deliver any news, we provide brief information regarding that (including the W’s and H) and then elaborate it; this is called the reverse pyramid. He explains how the basic structure of news telling should be in such a manner that the audience sees it with full concentration. Moreover, the difference between journalism and digital writing/journalism revolves around speed and graphical representation. In digital journalism, along with written elements, you have to provide graphical elements as well. Due to technological advancement and the use of smartphones, the news feed speed has increased. He shares his point of view as a journalist and explains that in digital media, the news structure is same as before, but the editorial part is missing which is of great importance. Editors work on the language, credibility and verification of the content. Since there are no editors in digital media, any person who owns a smartphone or device can generate any type of news and spread it. This news is not verified, neither has the correct language structure. This is the main difference between journalism and digital media. The absence of an editor has given birth to a new phenomenon which is fake news. Today, fake news has both the elements of propaganda and ignorance. Sir Atif shares his experience of witnessing the quick spread of fake news as compared to authentic news because it has more potential and element of sensation. He then talks about the influence of senders and receivers on the delivered message. Nowadays, digital media has increased teaser-based journalism where they also use click-baits in order to gain more views. If you follow serious journalism, you won’t get clicks and advertisements. Media houses have this pressure of gaining clicks from which they get advertisements. Companies pay huge amounts of money to media houses for their own benefits and media largely depends upon these corporations for ads.
Moreover, in our country there are a number of political parties having their own media cells, generating news for their own benefit. This involves the element of propaganda. When a media cell shares some news, both negative and positive reactions are expected.
Sir Atif talks about how writing in digital media involves different elements as compared to normal journalism. It is far more compact as compared to newspaper articles. Vlogging on digital media should be short, as it gains more views and shares. When you write a vlog in digital media, the time duration shouldn’t be more than 5 minutes, so the social media algorithm allows it. The language should be compact and crisp, you should also incorporate the element of graphical images. The vlog should be written in such a manner that it satisfies the audience and people share it. The audience should be kept in mind at all times, and the content should be created accordingly. The language should be comprehensive and simple so that everyone understands it.
Moreover, he explains iPhone journalism or citizen journalism which is taught in Europe. It teaches how any citizen owning a smartphone can take pictures, generate news and share it on their profiles. People share it and it becomes news in no time. Today, social media has played an important role in delivering news which is often forgotten by mainstream media or national media. It spreads news very quickly and influences the news channels. As an example, sir Atif shares an incident which occurred in the 90’s during the Bosnian war. He mentions 3 famous newspapers of Germany out of which one shared images of Bosnian Muslim men, standing shirtless and it said, ‘concentration camp in Europe’. This image created a huge influence on both German nation and Britain. This example shows the power an image holds. One picture can change the entire spectrum of things.
Sir Atif Tauqeer further teaches us about how one should keep in mind the reason behind the creation of a product either it is just for attention of the viewers, or for actually reaching to people. So, there should be a fine line between the sport of news you’re putting out and the way you are making others perceive it. He told us that it is important for him to make the news reach to the audience more than anything and for that reason, he entrusted that there should be a community that matches your thoughts and your point of view. For example, there is a community of those who prefer BBC, similar are the cases in Pakistan as well. Who share similar sort of preferences, One should never reach the level of sensationalization where the content is not of relevance After this, a student questions him about the freedom of speech in journalism. How there are many threats and restrictions on journalists if he or she ever writes something risky, against politics or someone in power. How can one write about such issues openly and not fear any sort of threat? He answers how freedom of expression is different for every state, place, and government. On a national level, this circle of freedom has and about how this freedom of expression or speech can be put out. In Pakistan, freedom of expression is to a level that one can even point out the PM or President, etc. The only restriction one has is over Army, in Pakistan, one cannot talk bad about the Army. Different is the case for every country. For example, in India, one cannot talk or point out the government, if they do, they get labelled as traitors or anti-Indians. Similar is the case for middle east, pointing out the government means pointing out the whole kingdom. Talking about the west, the rules are different in regards to freedom of expression. He further pointed how there is a fine line between freedom of speech and hate speech, it is difficult to consider or point out one from another. One cannot perfectly define these two terms. If talking about religion, cultural norms, we know there is a red line that we cannot cross. Those who are writing openly about anything and everything are aware of these circles and are not crossing these lines or circles. If one does, there is a warning for them, and due to this, they are careful about it in the future. After answering this question, there was another student who asked that if he had put a restriction on all of these cases, then where does freedom of expression lie? To which he answered that the definition of freedom of expression is different in different areas. He defines freedom of expression as an opinion that one can easily and freely give, similarly another can deny this opinion with his own as well, with no threat or fear. This whole phenomenon is westernized, he tells us that it took us years to reach the level of freedom we have now. There used to be a social hierarchy, with God at the top, then angels, saints, and then a king. After him, there were nobles, royals, commoners, and then animals, plants, rocks, etc. This whole structure had no pope in it. One was able to talk about God but not about the Pope, he was considered much bigger than the God himself. For Europe, it took them 4 to 500 years to equalize everything, from a commoner to a king, to a pope. Due to which freedom of expression, there is very different. Whereas in Pakistan freedom of expression is visualized as the westernized freedom of expression. The only issue is we haven’t covered these 500 years, there is still a long way to go for us. For the western to reach democracy, we have no covered that path yet. We are not aware of their blood sweat and tears. We cannot even think of speaking up against God we were brought up to be that way, our religion our beliefs get in our way of thinking beyond the circle that we drew our self. We are taught that our God does not like when one questions about Islam or Allah, but what could Allah possibly have against such questions? Nothing. So, this is the element that restricts our society the foremost thing to enhance the society for the freedom of expression is our thinking and our mindset. If one does not debate, one cannot even think about freedom of expression. Freedom of expression is all about talking about something freely and also tolerating another opinion about something. In our society, if we talk, we have to face violence. Out teacher then jokingly questioned if we have to wait 500 years to reach that level of freedom as well, to which Sir Atif replied that, yes indeed, not specifically 500 years but one does have to wait a lot. He told us to remember that for a bigger change, reform, etc, one has to ignite things. Evolution takes its path itself which is a very prolonged path. A bigger event is needed for a big opportunity which we Pakistanis have wasted, with the fear of or restriction of questions, debate, etc. He told us that he does not think that the same freedom of speech can be achieved by us that the westerners have done. In Pakistan is the army takes over, the Pakistani's will not even start protesting against it because our brains aren’t build up like that, once e get out of this loophole we will not be able to get the freedom of speech. We have a problem with perception, some things are regarded as wrong by everyone without any explanation. After such serious talks, our teacher-directed us as well as Sir Atif back to writing by asking him about how he starts writing or thinks about writing something during his live sessions of vlogs, and what does he prefer. He answered that if one goes live on a channel, the length is not defined, the structure of your sentences is not strong enough, you will not be compact, you will also not be crispy, all in all, you will drag something you are talking about. Live can only be seen by someone who is your die-hard fan or who is listening to it as a lecture because the content is more in that, but for vlogs, one has to write them first, and then read them, and present it out to the world. As one would read their vlogs script and see if it is even worth watching or hearing or not. So, if sir Atif had ever made vlogs, firstly he wrote them down and read it himself, understood them, and if he liked it himself only then he recorded them. The teacher asks to see one of his scripts and asks how it was planned, to which the answer was the one has to know about reserve parameter if the news was important and had to reach to the audience. The priority would be that. There is a report-based vlog in which one has to start with the main news, later on including the further details. In some special vlogs, one can use the news as an example of one’s greater narrative, starting with another example, reference, or saying, and then proceed to integrate the news into it. He further explains that the base has changed a lot, at first the size of the video was supposed to be of 4 minutes, but now it of 2 and a half only. Now the pace is different, and the compressed-ness is also different. The sort of product is different, for example for Instagram and Facebook, the sound should be different for each audience, for example in some videos for sound relevance there are subtitles added as well. So that people can get the report with or without sound. Moreover, the format of the video is different as well, as Instagram requires a square format so on and so forth. He also stated how the written report is reached by lesser people compared to the visual report. These were some important topics he covered in today’s session. It was a good and informative discussion for everyone and not just students opting for journalism.
- Hania Alvi
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