Learning Objectives:

• Understand what citizen journalism is and consider its implications.

“Read-only” vs. “Read-write”

LECTURE

Journalism 1.0 Conversation

Journalism 2.0

• YouTube presents an interesting case study to illustrate the main themes:– YouTube style content is now infecting the

mainstream media news agenda– Digital convergence has led to a blurring of the

boundaries between reporter and audience– Mainstream news organisations are now using

‘citizen-journalist’ sources in greater numbers– This has implications for what we say about

professionalism in journalism

Media futurist Dan Gillmor predicts that by 2021, ‘citizens will produce 50 percent of the news peer-to-peer’, however mainstream news media, that we have grown up with, are yet to meaningfully adopt or experiment with these new forms.

The digital sublime

• every radical media transformation induced by a new technology brings along the myth of the beginning of a new era

• including the hopes for social change and almost religious visions of miracles which the new modes to move information should bring

YouTube and thesurveillance society

Police and other authorities now surveiling YouTube for “criminal” activity

Non-professionals• Accidental journalists – eyewitnesses with

a recording device/cellphone

• Amateur journalists – bloggers who cover news, do original research and expose hidden issues

• Citizen journalists – Amateurs with a particular social mission in politics, etc

• Pro-am – a combination of the above with a professional journalist/mentor

“Open source” journalismGrassroots journalism is part o the wider phenomenon of citizen-generated media—of a global conversation that is growing in strength, complexity and power.

When people can express themselves, they will.

When they can do so with powerful yet inexpensive tools, they take the new-media realm quickly.

When they an reach a potentially global audience, they literally can change the world.

Dan Gillmor, We the media (2006)

‘by the people, for the people’• Gillmor is a digital optimist

– Society can no longer afford to rely on “Big Media”

– News reporting is becoming a two-way conversation—a “seminar”, not a “lecture”

– “Professional journalism’s worst enemy may be itself.” (xxvi)

– Blogging and citizen journalism are in the tradition of bourgeois liberalism (eg: Thomas Paine)

American CarnivalThe weakening of journalistic professionalism and centrality in this rapidly transforming system not only makes lies and hoaxes more possible but also poses compelling new questions about the quality of news informing democratic society. (p.117)

In such a new and still-evolving order, governed less and less by professionalism—or at least incognizant of the need for standards—it becomes far easier for objective truth and basic facts about important issues to become debatable notions in civil society and political discourse. (p.31)

Neil Henry, American Carnival (2007)

“Fun house” and “freak show”• Neil Henry is a digital pessimist

– Blogging and citizen media is more noise, less news

– Attacks on professionalism / job cuts / reduced budgets weaken journalism

– PR “hucksters” take advantage and bombard us with “fake news”

– Does journalism matter? Yes it does– …but it is “troubled and confused” (p.208)

The YouTube effectWelcome to the "YouTube effect." It is the phenomenon whereby video clips, often produced by individuals acting on their own, are rapidly disseminated worldwide on websites such as YouTube and Google Video.

YouTube has 34 million monthly visitors, and 65,000 new videos are posted every day.

YouTube is a mixed blessing: It is now harder to know what to believe. How do we know that what we see in a video clip posted by a "citizen journalist" is not a manipulated montage?

Moises Naim, LA Times, 20 December 2006

As a former journalist, I have finally realized what bothers me so much about the notion of citizen journalism. It is the veritable absence of investigative journalism. Why is it missing? Money. Pure and simple. (comment on Flip the Media blog in response to YouTube announcement)

In the professional media, there is a firm code of ethics, such as preserving privacy and fairness of the point of view. Cub reporters are supposed to take a lecture about ethical issuesI am concerned about the thriving of citizen media without their following a code of ethics , it will be out of control.

The observation that some videos actually reveal “truth” is the start of a trend that is changing the way journalists approach stories.

Yes, a journalist might have a great clip for a story from YouTube. But the question remains: Is the story legitimate?

Even though a video poster has uploaded his or her video for the world to see, the journalists still have to sift through the fact and fiction.

They still have to make the phone calls and set up interviews to confirm information.

Journalism for the 21st Century blog January 2007

TV to reckon with YouTubeBBC does deal to get licensed content on to YouTube

On the other hand, Viacom sued Google for copyright infringement

Both show that the mainstream media cannot ignore the “YouTube effect” any more

Optimism v Pessimism• Citizen journalism will forever undermine the

power of the major broadcast and publishing news media

• Journalism will either have to adapt or die, either way it’s a good thing

• The corporates cannot afford to ignore UGC, nor let it outflank them

• Instead the corporate global media giants will attempt to harness the power of social networking and UGC to enhance profits

"The journalist of the future is going to be someone who is trained from the beginning to be flexible and work in an environment that mixes digital images, sound, text and the Internet as well as traditional newspapers, magazines and television and radio broadcasts.“

Sybril Bennett, New Century Journalism, Belmont College

Who’s who in the digital zoo?• Clearly Youtubers are not ‘professional’ or

‘career’ journalists• However, it opens up parts of the news

agenda to non-professionals• For audience it blurs the edges of ‘news’

even further• It appeals to digital natives more than

mainstream media does• Professional journalism is still coming to

terms with the “YouTube effect”