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As news evolves, the rise of interdisciplinary fields, such as tech and translation, are finding their way into investigative journalism. Virtual reality has changed the industry–just look at The New York Times’ virtual reality section.
Yet, there is one thing that seems to be constant now, and it’s a subtle one: video-conferencing. Now, the majority of news sources, local or international, make use of video-conferences, such as Zoom, or Google Meet, or their own video programs.
How webinars evolved to reach a multilingual audience
Journalists have used every invention to their advantage. When the radio was invented, journalists covered FDR’s every movement. When the telephone was invented, reporters trailed Watergate through the landline. And now that the internet is here, reaching as many people as possible through webinars is finding center stage.
It seems natural now to find a reporter talking to an interviewee in a video conference posted on a website. Yet, Zoom only launched in April 2011, Google Meet in March 2017, and they didn’t really reach their peak until the pandemic hit. With everyone staying at home for most of 2020, and journalists needing to find ways to interview and investigate without the possibility of on-site locations, video conferencing became the ubiquitous platform it is now.
With the pandemic, publishers found themselves needing to impart critical news through digital platforms rather than through traditional platforms; video conferencing and webinars fit that need. In turn, webinars were translated and transcribed to multilingual audiences. And the rest is history.
Independent journalism turns to video-conferencing
When independent journalists all over the world turn to video conferencing programs for their interviews, the results are magnified since the third wall is a thin screen between the audience and the subject. For example, “The Box” a theater piece by journalist Sarah Shroud, uses theater and Zoom together to investigate stories about solitary confinement in the U.S.
The ethics of Zoom reporting is now widely being discussed, with “The Ethics of Zoom Reporting” and Zoom tutorials as classes in journalism schools such as in the University of Oregon and Harvard University. Magazines such as The National Geographic and The New Yorker have topics such as “‘Zoom fatigue’ is taxing the brain” and “The Great Zoom-School Experiment,” respectively.
Independent news sources such as The Independent UK have a sub-topic of “Live on Zoom.” And, NPR covered “An Etiquette Primer For Zoom And Other Videoconferencing Services” over audio-only voice recording. Out of all the video conference platforms, Zoom is definitely making its mark on the journalism industry.
Video-conferences done right
When Zoom is done right, it can zoom in on rather private processes, such as government meetings, citizens in remote corners of the world, webinars hosted by entrepreneurs, or other venues wherein the public would not usually have easy access to.
Pulitzer Center awardee Ejiro Umukoro was part of a Zoom webinar “African Journalists on Covering Crises During a Pandemic” recently for the Pulitzer Center for her work on investigative journalism in the field of gender-based violence, which has appeared in The Guardian and Premium Times.
The Independent Singapore has reported on government meetings in Zoom calls, posting the Zoom video on their website, much like the other news sources who post Zoom recordings. When the video conference goes well, much like in real life, then it can be educational and hard-hitting.
When Zoombombing goes viral
When video-conferences or webinars don’t turn out well, it immediately turns viral, amidst public consternation. The Verge journalist Casey Newton was interviewing venture capitalist Hunter Walk with dozens of attendees at their Zoom conference was suddenly they were bombarded with erotic videos. Attempts to ward off the attack were blocked since perpetrators simply logged into the conference in a new account and reposted. The hosts ended the call abruptly.
The Washington Post and the New Straits Times also reported on a chaotic British meeting gone viral, with much-interrupted shouting, to the public’s hilarity. A Singaporean court hearing was on a Zoom call that went viral when a death sentence was announced over Zoom, but the Zoom call of that is no longer available.
Those are examples of how this act called “zoombombing” can go extremely wrong, causing mental and emotional chaos for the participants. It has happened to the best journalists at the worst possible times. Issues over Zoom security have popped up as well and in this modern era when everyone is using Zoom, it is difficult to predict how the media will handle these issues.
Ofer Tirosh
CEO, Tomedes
Tomedes is one of the leading translation services in the world with specialties that include news and journalism translation. Tomedes has been working with numerous media clients around the globe for over a decade.
