The impact of journalists on society

Nurzhan delivering her speech

Text of the speech delivered by Nurzhan Kasmalieva at the World Journalists Conference (WJC 2022)

By Nurzhan Kasmalieva

“I prepared a slide a brief introduction about my country Kyrgyzstan, though its not related to my presentation directly, anyway I think it will be interesting for you and you will enjoy it while I am speaking.

The media and the society have had a relationship that has existed for centuries. Nowadays not only journalism, but the social media also had such a huge impact on society.

The media serves as witnesses of the events happening within our societies and then report them and through the social media people become aware of events and issues occurring around them.

Journalists are often closer to the truth than most communities and have an important role in enlightening people and helping them, and thus, society can benefit from journalists and their effects on people to become better.

When we look at history, we see that several societies have moved forward politically, economically, and socially thanks to the great input and influence of journalists as well as to the journalists’ crucial role in using their reports to limit abuses and expose assaults on freedom and democracy.

The amazing advances in social media have contributed to huge changes on how societies think and behave.

Combining technology, speed and ease, social media has changed behaviors, affected attitudes and imposed a new way of life and communication throughout the world.

Unfortunately, they have also helped disinformation spread faster and wider across the world.

It is true that the most spectacular effects of journalism are in the political field, such as the role of reporters in covering the wars, conflicts or scandals, journalists have also been instrumental in reporting on the COVID-19 pandemic, the threats of climate changes, the empowerment of women and minorities, the plight of refugees, sports events and others.

There are many journalists, bloggers and activists, who actively use the social media and use it to their own advantages. Nowadays almost every person, who actively uses the social media can impact on the society. They usually criticize the authorities, their actions and decisions and lead the public behind them.

Journalists analyse those actions and decisions and give reports of the consequences to the public. Sometimes the media is able to hold the authorities to account for their actions. One of examples of such case in Kyrgyzstan was when reporters of local media made a journalistic investigation about corruption scheme in customs system of the country, which aroused great resonance and the authorities of the Customs Service were detained. And there are a lot of such cases.

My country Kyrgyzstan is full of natural beauty and great opportunities. After the collapse of the Soviet Union, there was a strong drive in Kyrgyzstan to build a vibrant country with democratic society and journalists had an important role in the nation-building process.

The young generation is highly active in using digital tools to express their personal views, providing the media with a new way to influence society, spread freedom of expression, widen democratic practices and incite social debates.

Despite the challenges, and they are not simple, journalists and social media users in Kyrgyzstan continue to have a significant role in changing society.

We are confident that journalism will be always a positive factor of change in Kyrgyzstan and elsewhere in the world.

At the end of my speech I would like to thank the Journalists Association of Korea and Asia Journalists Association for this opportunity to participate in this conference.

Thank you very much!”