Web 2.0 allows consumers to communicate, consume and inform. This is extremely prevalent within citizen journalism, and now with the existence of certain websites such as Global Online Voices and through blogs, more possibilities to be active participants are available.
The core principle behind citizen journalism is to allow people to document issues which are of importance of them in an enviroment where others can view their work. Citizen journalism occurs primarily online through blogs, stand-alone citizen journalism sites and WikiNews. Often, issues addressed through citizen journalism are those which are overlooked by mass media, or given a skewed representation. These niche markets include current topics such as alternatvie movies and music, sub-cultures, technological advances and most popularly politics.
However, mainstream media is starting to realise the importance and influential properties which citizen journalism holds. MSNBC, Associated Press and CNN each have a related citizen journalism website.
Richard Sanbrook, Director of BBC's Global News Division states:
"... when major events occur, the public can offer us as much new information as we are able to broadcast to them. From now on news coverage is a partnership."
Evident with the tragic Virginia Tech shootings, footage taken on a students mobile phone quickly adorned headlines of CNN, an example of the relationship forming between civic and citizen journalists.
Citizen journalism is a clear example of fluid heterarchy, ad hoc meritocracy; a fundamental principle of produsage (Bruns, 2008, 79). "The community governs itself through a constant process of mutual evaluation through peer commentary and criticism," (Bruns, 2008, 79). This, along with the other fundamental principles of produsage are mentioned in my previous blog, How is open source different from commercial production.
With the shift towards user-generated content, citizen journalism gives people the ability to influence traditional mass media.
3 comments:
I agree with you that “With the shift towards user-generated content, citizen journalism gives people the ability to influence traditional mass media.” However, I feel that you are trying to say that traditional media is lagging behind the new frontier of blogging, and is now trying to play catch up.
It’s important to keep in mind the distinction between traditional reporting and blogging. While bloggers might add a different perspective to a story or event, they aren’t always objective or fact checked and are quite often opinionated.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DBkFswkRawc
A good way to think about it is to see blogs as Wikipedia where many users create and submit their own point of view about a subject. And journalism is more like Encarta where a few professionals have used facts and researched information to write about a subject.
There are many examples of blogs reporting misinformation and hearsay. One classic example is when apple’s share price plummeted because of a false rumour that was circulated by bloggers about the iphone.
http://www.news.com/8301-10784_3-9719952-7.html
I’m not saying that blogs aren’t a valuable source of information; just that it is important to remember that what they are saying can be opinionated, skewed or baseless, and to read them with a grain of salt.
I don’t quite agree on the definition of citizen journalism you give. I believe sometimes the acts are random but majority of the quality articles done by citizen journalists would be researched and proof read. Like you said it is stories which are overlooked by the mass media which are told by citizen journalists and if they are of interest to these people, I don’t think these articles would be considered random acts of journalism. I think Mark Glaser’s (2006) definition works better with the whole concept. He defines it as ordinary people without professional training using multimedia tools to create and distribute materials you have created (Glaser, 2006)
Citizen journalism was also a big factor in the reporting of the London Bombings in 2005. BBC used photos which were sent in by citizens who were affected by the terrorist attacks (Sambrook, 2005). The BBC has received more than 20,000 emails among other forms of multimedia within the first six hours after the attack. It was actually an email which alerted the BBC that it was more than a power surge which occurred (Sambrook, 2005). It seems when a disaster occurs, the people are taking it upon themselves to actually report the stories, not just to rely on the mass media to report sometimes incorrect or incomplete information.
Glaser, M. 2006. MediaShift. Digging Deeper: Your Guide to Citizen Journalism | PBS. http://www.pbs.org/mediashift/2006/09/digging_deeperyour_guide_to_ci.html (accessed April 29, 2008)
Sambrook, R. 2005. Citizen Journalism and the BBC. Nieman Reports 59, no. 4 (December 1): 13-16. http://www.proquest.com.ezp02.library.qut.edu.au/ (accessed April 28, 2008).
I find the topic of Citizen journalists very fascinating also. I just got finished reading Brendam's blog regarding this same topic and was fascinated by a quote that he had included in his rantings that was taken from a journalist themself I believe, in which the source said that (and I'm just paraphrasing here), once a citizen, investigates, explores, and then produces an article on a certain topic, that the citizen is no longer but is a journalist themselves. I found this quote so fascinating coming from the mouth of a true journalist himself who practically states that there is no such thing as citizen journalists! In essence, he is also saying that in this current generation and new found technologically based culture, that you do not need an extensive education and years at university to become a journalist and that, well for example, no offence to anyone, that a stay at home mum who hasn't worked in 15 years and never went past Year 10 in high school could become a journalist herself! Makes me glad I'm not doing a journalism degree at university, once hearing that (no offence to anyone once again).
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