Nine Network: My Kid's a Star Citizen journalism is most easily defined as “non journalists committing random acts of journalism,” (Williams, 2006). Web 2.0 has encouraged the advancement of communication tools, and the way societies use these; it is becoming increasingly easier for people to participate in citizen journalism through the use of websites like citizenjourno and blogs. These online tools are giving individuals the power to voice their opinion on many topics, most notably current news, politics and media.
Recently, Channel Nine created an Australian version of reality television show, My Kid’s a Star. Ten young performers and their stage parents enter a Biggest Loser-type house and embark on a six week boot camp, the children, aged 9 to 16 are judged by show business agents whom offer (somewhat constructive) criticism. After the first episode aired on April 9, there was large media coverage noting the shows lack of ratings (News Limited, 2008). However, community outrage appeared in the form of blogs (TV Tonight and Ali’s Television Blog) and through public comments on articles in websites (such as news.com.au and The Daily Telegraph) addressing issues civil journalists failed to cover. For instance, judge Marki Costello called one contestant’s clothing ‘slutty’ (see here), parents talk about their children as brands and one nine year old broke down in tears when told they were wearing too much make up. Not only were the parents flagged as child abusers, but the Nine Network was labelled greedy and incompetent (Clune, 2008). Whilst the show is now showed in the less-desirable midday on Saturday timeslot and attracting less media scrutiny, citizen journalists are still voicing public indignation that the show remains on air.
What does citizen journalism mean for the future of television? Other programs have already been held accountable by citizen journalists, Networks Ten’s Teen Fit Camp (nee Teen Fat Camp) had to change its name following media and participatory criticism (Knox, 2008). Ultimately citizen journalists are monitoring media and ensuring transparency and ethically sound principles are held. Citizen journalism also holds advantages for networks and producers, allowing them to see opinions and suggestions by simply searching the Internet. This free criticism can prove priceless for producers in assessing the strengths and weaknesses of their program and by addressing noted flaws, prospective crisis’ can be averted.
Although citizen journalists are not technically ‘qualified’ as journalists, and their blogs and comments are often subjective, it allows “communities to comment on stories and thereby build up a more detailed, communal understanding of [the story’s] background, context and impact, as well as evaluating the information contained in the initial reports and combining or contrasting it with other available information,” (Bruns, 2008, 75). Citizen journalism is influential and efficient though cannot replace the credibility and objective view of traditional media, it does however provide individuals with the power to communicate and express opinions directly to producers and networks.
References
Bruns, A. 2008. News Blogs and Citizen Journalism: Perpetual Collaboration in Evaluating the News. In Blogs, Wikipedia, Second Life and Beyond: From Production to Produsage, 69-99. New York: Peter Lang.
Clune, R. 2008. My Star Kids are being abused. The Daily Telegraph. April 13. http://www.news.com.au/dailytelegraph/story/0,22049,23529669-5006014,00.html (Accessed May 6, 2008).
Knox, D. 2008. First Review: My Kid’s a Star. April 4. TV Tonight Australia’s Leading Blog. http://www.tvtonight.com.au/2008/04/first-review-my-kids-star.html (Accessed May 6, 2008).
News Limited. 2008. My Kid’s a Star latest Nine failing. news.com.au. April 29. http://www.news.com.au/entertainment/story/0,26278,23615109-10388,00.html (Accessed May 6, 2008).
Williams, L. 2006. Citizen Journalism – What is it? http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=58iZpMRclwI&feature=related (Accessed May 6, 2008).
