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Citizen JournalismCITIZEN JOURNALISM VS MAINSTREAM MEDIA

Citizen Journalism

One of the best examples of WE MEDIA

Journalism has been transformed with the creation of the internet

Previously it was something that would need to be studied in depth for a number of years

Now ‘ordinary’ people can become journalists, these people were previously the audience

Mainstream Media

This is what we are all familiar with: TV channels and tabloid/broadsheet newspapers. All of these enterprises are backed by corporate funding.

Effects of Citizen Journalism

Jeff Jarvis “We are in the era of news served raw….Life is on the record.”

What do you think is meant by this?

User Generated Footage

One of the first crucial examples of user-generated footage was amateur footage of a black man, Rodney King, being beaten by 4 white policeman in a racially-motivated attack in 1991.

Rodney King

Contemporary Examples

September 11th 2001 While news media captured the footage of the second Twin

Towers footage being hit, footage of the first being hit was mostly from tourists filming the events

December 26th 2004 Tsunami strikes Indian Ocean. Over 200,000 people were killed. Much of the footage came from tourists on holiday- so much

footage was shot that Channel 4 made a documentary of it: “Tsunami: Caught on Camera”

Theorist Ideas

Dan Gillmor: “There was a cliché that journalists write the first draft of history.

Now I think these people are writing the first draft of history at some level, and that’s an important shift.”

Positive Changes from Citizen Journalism

It is not just a case of user-generated footage being used that is important, but also that the internet provides opportunities for an alternative news approach.

Rather than being subjected to the typical news reporting approaches from the mainstream media, we are now able to see an alternative approach/argument we would not have been able to see before the introduction of the internet.

Problems with these changes

Rich Media, Poor Democracy

What problems are highlighted within this clip?

Case Study 1: Indy Media UK

Read through the IndyMedia Mission Statement. In what ways is it different from traditional journalism in terms of its methods?

What are the (a) advantages (b) disadvantages of this approach?

Case Study 2: Democracy Now!

Watch the first 5 minutes of Democracy Now! http://www.democracynow.org/

In what ways is it different to Indy Media UK?

Host Amy Goodman came from a background of community radio Began broadcasting on February 19th, 1996 Became an independent non-profit organisation in 2002, and is

shown/heard on 800 radio and television stations as well as on the internet

Professional Journalism

Obviously there are still more consumers of corporate news than citizen journalism but citizen journalists still have a profound effect on journalism. Firstly, the news often borrowed stories from citizen journalists and secondly, professional journalists found that they had to participate in creating conversations similar to those of citizen journalists and to have a higher degree of respect for their audience.

Professional journalists found that they had to participate in creating a conversation:

“It boils down to something simple: readers (or viewers or listeners) collectively know more than media professionals do. This is true by definition: they are many, and we are often just one. We need to recognize and, in the best sense of the word, use their knowledge. If we don’t, our former audience will bolt when they realize they don’t have to settle for half-baked coverage; they can come into the kitchen themselves.”- Gillmor p. 111

Case Study

Visit the IndyMedia page: https://www.indymedia.org.uk/en/2015/10/522490.html

Visit the Guardian page:http://www.theguardian.com/politics/2015/oct/04/anti-austerity-protestors-march-manchester-demonstration-conservative-party-conference

Compare the style of the two articles about the March.

Relevant Theory

Dan Gillmor (2004) Summary: Coined the term ‘We Media’ through his book We The

Media. Unsurprisingly, he offers a very optimistic account of citizen journalism, both in terms of its current but also its potential effect. His main argument is that ordinary people, as a collective, have more knowledge than any one journalist can. With the internet providing a means for ordinary people to participate, it to some extent, and will continue, to transform the news to a conversation rather than something we are being dictated to by professional, corporate journalists.

Gillmor’s entire book is available (legally) online: http://oreilly.com/catalog/wemedia/book/index.csp

Relevant Theory

Axel Bruns (2008) Summary: Bruns is slightly more cautious in terms of citizen journalism.

He sees citizen journalism as still being somewhat tactical and issue driven. He argues that the challenge for citizen journalists is to provide a less simplistic oppositional reading to the news and to instead focus on becoming a more established ‘second-tier’ of news to create a more permanent dialogue.

One of his articles articulating this is: Axel Bruns. "Gatewatching, Gatecrashing

: Futures for Tactical News Media." In Megan Boler, ed., Digital Media and Democracy: Tactics in Hard Times. Cambridge, Mass.: MIT P, 2008

Which is available as a PDF file under the heading ‘Produsage Applications’ at: http://produsage.org/articles

Relevant Theory

Andrew Keen (2006) Summary: Has a pessimistic view towards Web 2.0 generally,

including the concept of citizen journalism. He argues that through the democratisation of media leads to a flattening of talent. Furthermore, he has been quoted as saying that citizen journalists offer opinions rather than facts- and that professional journalists have been trained to give a more accurate form of reporting. Citizens’ roles is to engage with news provided by professionals. You can read Andrew Keen’s original article about many of these issues here:

http://www.weeklystandard.com/Content/Public/Articles/000/000/006/714fjczq.asp?page=1

Theory and Case Study

Discuss what you think the thoughts of Gillmor, Bruns and Andrew Keen would be about the Articles.

Which of the three theorists do you most agree with?

Reading

Read the interview with Andrew Keen and highlight his main views into Web 2.0 and ‘We Media’

Summarise the data in the BBC article and compare its affects on ‘We Media’

Key Questions

Using the examples have covered in Citizen Journalism, can you answer the following questions?

What are ‘We Media’? Where / how has ‘We Media’ emerged? In what ways are the contemporary media more democratic than

before? In what ways are the contemporary media less democratic than

before?

Exam Questions

As a citizen, to what extent do you feel that the media provide you with a democratic service?

Explain how some features of contemporary media are more democratic than others.

http://kevin.lexblog.com/2015/11/15/paris-attacks-demonstrate-the-importance-of-social-media/

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qziuXglyuwM