Audience involvement in news changing journalism, observes visiting professor

“No matter how technologically advanced things are, you can’t take away the journalist’s role as a traditional gatekeeper of the truth.”

Dr William Silcock used these words to describe Maldivian journalism student Lujain Ismail Shafeeq’s video, “The Future of News”. Shafeeq’s video was a finalist in the Joan Shorenstein Center on the Press, Politics and Public Policy’s 25th Anniversary video contest at the Harvard Kennedy School in the United States.

Dr Silcock is an assistant professor at the Walter Cronkite School of Journalism in Arizona, one of the largest universities in the US. He was selected as a Fulbright Scholar in Ireland and Sweden, has received several awards over his 25 years of broadcasting, and is considered a pioneer in the research of global television news culture. Dr Silcock has previously organised workshops for journalists in Croatia, Bosnia, Albania, Macedonia, and Montenegro, among others.

He spoke to journalism students at the Maldives’ National University on Sunday, October 16 regarding topics in communications such as ethics and the evolving nature of the press.