Rise of social media enhances transparency, accountability, say experts at Global Media Forum

Media professionals at the ongoing Global Media Forum in Bonn, Germany say the rise of internet and social media has enhanced the accountability and transparency in government.
Some of the professionals, who spoke on Wednesday, said increased digital reporting had made governance more transparent with information available to media professionals from various sources.
Mr Nick Gowing, a broadcaster with the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC), said social media had heralded a new age of transparency and accountability.
Gowing also said that the accountability triggered by digital journalism was not only felt in governance but also among corporations and the media industry.
“Digital change is affecting empowerment and, therefore, the legitimacy, view and the perception of the legitimacy of those in power.
“Everything will be visible, everything will be accountable,” Gowing said.
Ms Deborah Seward, Director, Strategic Communications Division, UN Department of Public Information, said digital journalism had encouraged inflow of information from different sources.
Seward said the world looked up to the UN to craft solutions to problems but that it had to take into account information coming from different platforms.
She also said that information inflow must invariably lead to a great need for accountability.
Another resource person, Mr Dunja Mijatovic, said virtual diplomacy was a huge challenge for diplomats “in this digital era” as everyone was more exposed to the outside world.
“We are becoming more transparent, more accountable and more reachable but this cannot, in anyway, replace traditional diplomacy’’, Mijatovic said.
In her speech, Dr Jan Melissen, Senior Research Fellow Clingendael-Netherlands Institute of International Relations, said the change resulting from the shift to a digital age was inevitable.
Melissen said key functions of diplomacy were related to the digital platform, adding that diplomacy was about negotiations, communication and representation.
“Digital journalism is not the end of diplomacy but the end of diplomacy as we know it,’’ he said.