Citizen journalism: The Beginning
New ways of consuming media, new infrastructures
of production and distribution (Couldry, 2003)
The rise of interactive online and networked media
‘opens up unprecedented opportunities for more
inclusive public engagement in the deliberation of
policy issues’ (Coleman 2005)
The Internet enabled every user to become a
producer of content and distribute it globally.
(Croteau, 2006)
‘Participatory Culture’ (Jenkins, 2006)
Broader definition of the concept of ‘citizenship’.
New citizen practices (Hermes, 2006)
Concepts: citizen journalism, participatory journalism,
interactive journalism, public journalism, user-generated media...
When the people formerly known as the audience employ the press tools
they now have in their possession to inform one another, that’s citizen journalism
(Rosen, 2008)
User-generated media sites: characterized by the use of everyday citizens as
reporters, usually unpaid, in the place of professional journalists. They take full
advantage of interactive Web 2.0-type technologies that allow readers, reporters,
and the professional staff to comment on stories, as well as to debate and discuss
issues in ways that are impossible in traditional mass media. (Joyce, 2007)
Public journalism aimed to ‘see people as citizens rather than as spectators, readers, viewers,
listeners, or an undifferentiated mass’ (Rosen, 2000) and to reinvigorate participatory democracy
by emphasizing journalism’s social responsibility (Glasser, 2000)
Participatory journalism is any kind of newswork at the hands of professionals and amateurs,
of journalists and citizens, and of users and producers benchmarked by commons-based peer
production (Bentley, et al., 2005)
Interactive journalism: practices in online journalism, that use the Web as a platform for
interactivity and discussion. is still produced only by professionals, but user feedback is
facilitated from the moment on that the news is published (Paulussen et al., 2007)
Opportunities
-New alternative voices and sources. It improves democratic system as it ensures
the diversity of public opinion.
- First-hand contributions during crisis events (photosharing websites, blogs…)
- It removes ‘elite’ gatekeepers
- It gives a space for marginalized, alternative and activists social groups.
- Counterbalance to the mainstream media
- Independent from corporate sponsors and government.
- Influential political function in highlighting social problems ignored by the mainstream
Media. Activism, organization.
- Transcend geographic boundaries
- Clearinghouse for disaster relief information
- Low production costs, focus on news than traditional media doesn’t find
profitable
-Social and political responsibility. Citizen participation in the evaluation of public
policies. Strengthen democratic culture.
-Collective intelligence. Collaborative learning. Participatory culture.
- Collective, egalitarian and non-hierarchical journalism
Threats
Can give a voice to extremists groups: racism, hate, violence… that would not
be allowed on the mainstream media.
“Participation journalism” could not result in any improvement over previous ways of
doing things, or of any effective or useful consequences.
Untrustworthy. Without the code of journalistic ethic. Without contrast of facts and
sources. Not trained as professional journalists. Content can be not reliable / trusted
Subjective. Conflicts of interests. Echo chambers. At the expense of broader viewpoints.
Digital Divide. It tends to reinforce existing institutional arrangements and social
inequalities
It challenges journalism as a profession.
It focuses mainly in ‘soft news’ areas.
Good practices
OhmyNews: 2002 South Korean presidential election (Woo Young, 2009)
Indymedia.be: Belgian peace movement (Carpentier, et. al., 2009)
Youdecide project: 2007 Australian Federal Election (Flew & Wilson, 2008)
NowPublic (U.S.), British BBC Action Network, Dutch site Headlines
(Bentley, et. al., 2005)
Interaction: public communicators /citizen
journalism
Professional journalists are rather sceptical about interactivity with their users,
and that they still like to think about the role of journalism in terms of the top-down
model of trustee journalism (…) the base on which the ideals of participatory
journalism are being built is rather narrow as the large majority of citizens are still
unlikely to play an active role in the news making process. In “best practices” cases,
an analysis of the structural changes in work organization, routines and professional
values that have enabled relevant participation will be useful to assess to what extent
participatory journalism can become a widespread practice in the media and what
can be its consequences for the quality of journalism and the public sphere (Paulessen,
et. al., 2007)
Interaction: public communicators /citizen
journalism
Convergence culture in journalism relies on the readiness of both sides of the
equation: participants must bring and/or build an understanding of how to operate
in a news produsage environment just as much as journalists must develop a sense
of how to reinvent themselves as co-creators of culture (Bentley, et al., 2005)
‘Connection, content and community’ are the three essential elements of a sound
public communications domain that society and citizens need (Bardoel, 2002)
People use popular media, including interactive media, to construct their citizenship
in many ways that extend far beyond the notion of ‘being informed’. The Internet it does
provide for new citizen practices. These citizen practices are focused more on
social rather than political participation, they may be rather incidental than structural,
and they express the need for community, for sharing, bonding, connectedness and
interaction. Participation, as it is expressed on Internet, defines what people expect
from the media and how they use them to inform each other (Paulussen, et. Al., 2007)
The future
Institution, public communicators and journalists should act to promote active
citizenship and not to generate captive opinion leaders. To say it in other words
they should first of all be open to give back a part of their power to the source
of the power itself: the people
Convergence culture may enable “a future citizen journalism where professional
reporters and engaged citizens indeed co-create a public sphere within their
communities of reference (Deuze, 2009)