February 04, 2019 | 17:33
“IF YOU DON’T WANT TO READ FAKE NEWS, TELL THE AUDIENCE THE TRUTH”: BBC RADIO SENIOR EDITOR STEVE TITHERINGTON
The meeting with the Senior Editor of BBC Radio Steve Titherington was held today at YSU Faculty of Journalism “The meeting was organized by YSU Faculty of Journalism. The Dean of the Faculty Naghash Martirosyan, heads of chairs, lecturers and students were present at the meeting.
Mr. Titherington started his lecture telling about his first visit to Armenia. “My first visit to Armenia was to highlight Spitak earthquake. At that time people very well understood the importance of information and assisted me thoroughly”, told Mr. Titherington.
Working in the sphere of journalism for almost 30 years Steve Titherington noted that during that period he realized that journalism isn’t a profession but an important goal. “My profession is a philosopher, and I entered the sphere of journalism when I was unemployed, when I didn’t succeed in anything. Gradually I understood that the profession of a journalist is more than just a profession, it is a goal, a tool for speaking out important problems”, explained Mr. Titherington.
Presenting his activity at BBS he outlined that BBS is one of the most influential information news in the world. Nearly 600 journalists work here and each of them is intelligent and hardworking. “It has always been very important for our team to provide high-quality content to our audience, however our audience called us “boring” outlining that we were good but had to change”, said Steve.
“It was clear that we have to work out new approaches. Journalism is not about just telling stories, presenting facts, it is about personal motivation of journalists”. Referring to social media networks Steve Titherington says that they are more flexible that we can imagine. “There is an opinion that short videos have more views in social networks. Our first downloaded video lasted 3 minutes. They said it was very long and won’t have many views, while actually within a night it had about a million views”.
The results proved that high-quality content can have many views no matter how long they are, as not everyone seeks for entertainment on the Internet. In parallel with the Internet development new challenges arise in journalism. The problem of fake news so actual in Armenia is the problem throughout the world. “False news is everywhere. There is only one formula: if you don’t want to read fake information, tell the audience the truth”, said the speaker.
Mr. Titherington stressed that the tools of journalism have become more expanded. Today everyone can get in touch with others and report live news via his mobile phone. “Previously, we often sent journalists to different parts of the world to highlight the events, like when I was in Spitak. Nowadays, the journalists of corresponding areas are our reporters and they help to highlight the situation on the spot”.
At the end of the meeting Mr. Titherington answered the questions of those present.
