‘Moral journalists’: The emergence of new intermediaries of news in an age of digital media

Abstract

The article examines how online journalism fosters new models of journalism that challenge journalistic values associated with modern era journalism. It focuses on the shift from ‘objective’ journalism to an ethical journalistic practice that aims to publicize a reality of suffering that is marginalized or even denied. We argue that the digital platforms facilitate the emergence of a new journalistic model – the model of the ‘moral journalist’. Unlike the ‘objective’ journalist who (supposedly) remains outside of events and reports only ‘facts’, and unlike the ‘advocate’ journalist who aims to bring about change by reporting on events in which they take part, the ‘moral journalist’ witnesses events that involve the suffering of others with the aim of changing the witnessed reality. The claims will be grounded in an analysis of one case study: the online journalistic activities of the members of ‘Machsom Watch’ – an all female organization whose members act to monitor the human rights of Palestinians at checkpoints set up by the Israeli army and post their reports on their website.