Citizen Journalism

T.Sandesh Alexander

M.A. Mass Communication

2nd Yr

A most useful definition

Jay Rosen, 2008

“When the people formerly known as the audience employ the press tools they have in their possession to inform one another, that’s citizen journalism.”

“When the people formerly known as the audience employ the press tools they have in their possession to inform one another, that’s citizen journalism.”

“When the people formerly known as the audience employ the press tools they have in their possession to inform one another, that’s citizen journalism.”

“When the people formerly known as the audience employ the press tools they have in their possession to inform one another, that’s citizen journalism.”

“When the people formerly known as the audience employ the press tools they have in their possession to inform one another, that’s citizen journalism.”

“When the people formerly known as the audience employ the press tools they have in their possession to inform one another, that’s citizen journalism.”

Some key features of citizen-J

Absence of a “middle man” in doing newsInterpersonal form of newsflow (a “person talking,” like a blog)The act of citizens “playing an active role in the process of collecting, reporting, analyzing and disseminating news and information” (Bowman and Willis)

Doing citizen journalism

How does this work in practice?

You write about a city council meeting on your blogCapture eyewitness moment with your digital camera and post to a news siteGrab video of something newsy and post to YouTubeIn other words …

Create, augment, or fact-check media on their own or in collaboration with others

How online news sites use citizen-J

Pros in charge Amateur control

Opening up to comments

Add-on reporter

Citizen bloghouse

Stand-alone citizen site; minimal editing

Hybrid: pro + citizen

Wiki-style

11 Layers of Citizen Journalism

Pros in charge Amateur control

Opening up to comments

Add-on reporter

Citizen bloghouse

Stand-alone citizen site; minimal editing

Hybrid: pro + citizen

Wiki-style

Layer 1: Opening up to comment

Letting readers comment on news siteMost basic form of participationOnly comments on stories? …

Why not classifieds, obituaries, letters to editor?

But, how do you handle the toxic stuff?Require users to register (name/e-mail)“Moderation a virtue?”

Layer 2: Citizen add-on reporter

Solicit info/experiences from communityExample

say there’s an issue piece on car thefts; “tell us your own experience”; submit photos, etc.

Layer 3: Open-source reporting

Collaboration between pro journalist and readers on a story

“expert readers” add knowledge, ask questionsSometimes even do actual reporting

Examples“We’re doing an interview with X; what do you want us to ask?”Circulate a draft version of report to bloggers, etc.Highlight reader tips in pop-up boxes online?

Layer 4: Citizen bloghouse

Invite anyone to blog on your site… or invite selected people to blogAggregate local blogs (like Greensboro101)Examples

Austin American-Statesman’s reader blogsBluffton Today’s community blogs

Layer 5: ‘Transparency’ blogsInvite panel of readers to critique your workThink of it as “citizen ombudsmen”Milder form: the editor’s blog pulling back the curtaining on the newsroom

Layer 6: Stand-alone citizen site

Now we’re really getting serious …Users submit whatever they wantThink lots of submitted photosEditors’ job?

Ensure minimum level of quality (line-editing)Modest monitoring of content

Essence: citizens’ more or less “own” the site

Layer 7: Citizen site … unedited

Costs less, and fits better in the spirit of citizen journalismOn safer legal ground?Regulate content through “report misconduct” buttons?Not a lot of success stories so far?

Layer 9: Pro + citizen hybrid

Layer 10: pro + am under one roof

Only nice in theory? …

Layer 11: wiki journalism

90-9-1 Principle

Or, Jay Rosen’s 1% doctrine

Of citizen-generated news …1% is high quality10% is … well, OKThe rest is garbage

DefinitionsTraditional Journalism

Written or oral assembly “characterized by a direct presentation of facts or description of events without an attempt at interpretation.”

Citizen Journalism“…when the people formerly known as the audience employ the press tools they have in their possession to inform one another.”State of Play

Journalism &

Citizen Journalism

Evolution of Citizen Journalism

Cavemen painting events on rock wallsBible brought to the masses by Gutenberg’s printing press (1400s)

The people could analyze and interpret without the “gatekeepers at the pulpit”Led to differing public opinions/writings—Protestantism

The Federalist Papers (1787-1788)Hamilton, Madison, Jay85 essays published in newspapers

Evolution of Citizen Journalism

Newspapers and news networks allow readers to write/phone/send in film footage and other information for public viewing.

Blogs, video (YouTube), cell phones, radio, etc.

Newspapers and broadcast news networks shift to the Internet.

Change in Traditional Journalism

News Networks (broadcast)Increasingly visual/audio societyIncreasingly fast-paced

Stories and footage available on-demand onlineFleeting era of trusted anchor

Newspapers (print)Shifting to the Internet to stay alive

Brings in youth audienceInternet is less expensive than printing methods

American Newspapers Visual

Citizen Journalism (in essence)

Citizen journalism has been around since communication beganTechnologies have and will continue to allow citizen journalism to develop and become even more prevalent in society

Issues of credibility and mediation remain unsolved

Citizen Journalism vs. Traditional JournalismWhich do you prefer?

Analyzing few forms of Citizen Journalism….!!!

Twitter & Citizen Journalism by Eduardo Collado

Domingo’s proposal talked about “citizen media”, “citizens blogs”, “citizen stories”, “content hierarchy”, “social networking”, collective interviews”, “comments”, “forums”, “journalists blogs” and “pools” locating Twitter in the phase of information distribution.The following article attempts to demonstrate content located on Twitter can be considered widely, reaching more phases in the process defined by Domingo.Citizen journalism, participatory journalism or user generated content it is defined as “the act of a citizen, or group of citizens, playing an active role in the process of collecting, reporting, analyzing and disseminating news and information”

So, Twitter could be a tool for citizen journalism?, why?First step is to define stages in the news production process: -

1. Access/Observation: The initial informationgathering stage at which source material for a story is generated, such as eyewitness accounts and audio-visual contributions.

2. Selection/Filtering: The “gatekeeping” stage when decisions are made about what should be reported or published.

3. Processing/Editing: The stage at which a story is created, including the writing and editing of an item for publication.

4. Distribution: The stage at which a story is disseminated or made available for reading and, potentially, discussion.

5. Interpretation: The stage at which a story that has been produced and published is opened up to comment and discussion.

Citizen Journalism and Rural Empowerment

byMarco A Figueiredo

Mauro A CâmaraPaola Prado

Ana M Albuquerque

Once acquainted with the modern information and communication tools made available with the advent of the Internet, five Brazilian rural communities participating in a pilot project to develop a self-sustaining telecenter model, engaged in citizen journalism using inexpensive digital video cameras.Community members used Web 2.0 collaborative tools to post short videos on the telecenter portal. The 95 video blogs published between September 2006 and May 2008 recorded various aspects of community life, including religious celebrations, oral history arts and crafts traditions, folklore, and environmental concerns.

1. The Gems of the Earth Video Blogging Project was launched during the Second Meeting of the Gems of the Earth Volunteers, which occurred on September 2-3, 2006, in the village of Tombadouro, in the northern part of the state of Minas Gerais, Brazil. The first video produced by the project depicted the meeting of the volunteers from the community telecenters of all five villages that compose the Gems of the Earth Rural Telecenter Pilot Project.

2. In order to assess the impact of the video blog project, researchers visited the community of Tombadouro in August of 2008 to interview the video bloggers and the villagers who participated in the project.

3. The interviews were recorded and later organized sequentially and by themes, as described elsewhere in this article.

1. A few weeks later, the video blogging instructors spent an entire week with four volunteers they met at the local telecenter. The instructors trained the volunteers through presentations and practice exercises.

2. After the training, the local volunteers set out to produce videos without the instructors, picking up new skills on their own and developing their video production technique. The impetus to acquire new knowledge, seeded by the experience with the instructors, prompted the local volunteers to experiment and to create their first independent production, showcasing the work of the rural workers’ cooperative

3. Once they became aware of the potential presented by video reporting, the video bloggers of Tombadouro began to document certain topics with the goal of mobilizing the community to action.

Conclusions1. This study found evidence that video blogging tools

empowered the community as a whole, and young video reporters in particular.

2. This study concludes with an analysis of the overall impact of Web 2.0 technologies for social and economic development, and identifies the strengths and shortcomings derived from the application of these digital tools.

3. The Gems of the Earth Video Blog project set out to empower rural telecenter users in the community with video editing and publishing capabilities. One of the most noticeable impacts of the project is the villagers’ increased awareness of the community telecenter.

4. The few volunteers who were trained in the use of video blogs acquired a new higher status among their peers, and are now recognized for possessing the skills that can bring innovation to the community. The volunteers were all teenagers and young adults.

1. It is also interesting to note that women were prolific content producers. The fact that the video content portrayed a diverse set of actors in terms of gender and ethnicity, seems to confirm Hoffmann- Riem’s model

2. The researchers attribute the increase in participation to the preference for face-to-face communication over written communication in communities with high rates of illiteracy.

3. It is possible to conclude that the citizen reporters in Tombadouro produced more video blogs than those in other communities because they had access to production equipment for a longer stretch of time and also because residents in that community shared a higher sense of solidarity and collaborated easily with each other.