Major Events and Citizen Journalism: Revealing the Digital Storytellers of the ‘Social Media’

GamesJennifer M. Jones

http://www.jennifermjones.net

Presentation for PhD Research Meeting: 17th April 2014

Defining Major Events

Vancouver 2010 Winter Olympics

London 2012 Summer Olympics

Glasgow 2014 Commonwealth Games

Established Narratives Global Brands

The Olympic Games is a media platform with an assumed dominant narrative; the IOC, Games organizers, sponsors and athletic federations attempt to defend the narrative against counter narratives...a problem for the Olympics is that there is some ambiguity over the ownership of the Olympic Games platform and the narrative.Who owns it? Is it the IOC, the organizing committee, the host city or nation, or the sponsors?" (Horne & Whannel, 2010, p762)!!the likelihood of a spiral of silence emerges, in which fringe minority voices get less hearing and are gradually brought into conformity...the hegemony of the privileged over web content and values will marginalise less powerful groups as it has in other media (Real, 2007, p182)

Media landscape of Major Event

Accredited Media

Sponsors

Media Guidelines

Unaccredited Media

Visiting journalists

Independent Media

Citizen journalism

Defining Citizen Journalism

Radical Media

Alternative Media

Community Journalism Blogger

Hyperlocal

Digital Storytelling

User-generated content

Social Media

Web 2.0

‘Social Media’ Games

“Official” social media

Small, alternative or citizen media offers space for the digitally empowered citizen to break stories, become media makers and storytellers of the now, archived as an historical record

The digital storytellers

digital infrastructures offer citizens new channels for speaking and acting together and thus lower the threshold for involvement (Bakardjieva et al, 2012: i)

Ethnography (pre/games time)

Social (media) data (archive)

Auto-ethnography

Currently…Researcher interpretation of data

Next steps

Research Aims• 1. To explore the experiences of key informants who were provided

facilities for and/or operating as bloggers and/or citizen journalists during the Vancouver 2010 Winter Olympics, London 2012 Summer Olympics and Glasgow 2014 Commonwealth Games.

• 2. To investigate the perceived impact of the content that was produced, such as the benefits and challenges faced by those who used social, digital or mobile media to self-publish stories relating to each host city. To understand what the legacy of their activity has been and if it has changed how they consider social media/digital media into their practice.

• 3. Based on these experiences, to makes comparisons and recommendations towards a definition for ‘digital storytelling’ as a term for describing the wider shared context of using social media and smart phone technology as a media production tool and outlet.

Concluding Thoughts• ample space within the saturated established media landscape for

citizen-owned and led initiatives, based on the philosophy of a low threshold for involvement using everyday digital technologies, effective coordination and amplification of key messages

• participatory media practices can help establish new collectives which are sustained beyond mega event spectacle - by observing, exploring and participating becoming potential action based research?

• In a more complex media environment, citizen media need not simply oppose the established media but instead co-exist, occupying at different times each other’s traditional spaces and using similar news-gathering and distribution techniques - major events provide a catalyst but also a hyper-reality for this experience to become accelerated.

Vancouver observing. London testing. Glasgow doing.