Citizen JournalismCrisis events & conflict zones

Susannah Waters

“Histories of Citizen Journalism” – Stuart Allen

• Allen: citizen journalism has “secured its place in journalism’s vocabulary”

• Boxing day 2004 tsunami: video footage, images from mobile phones & cameras, and personal accounts

• News organisations utilised this wealth of information

• Citizen journalism: often associated with crisis events.

Boxing day tsunami

Boxing day tsunami

• The significance was highlighted by media commentators & journalists just days following the event.

• They agreed it represented a “tipping point” in citizen journalism and that it was the first time that hundreds of regular people produced powerful coverage of a large news event.

• Channel 4 UK made a special “Tsunami: Caught on Camera”, all composed from citizen video footage, released in 2009.

Online & mobile reporting: crisis events

Other notable events:

• September 11

• London bombings

• Hurricane Katrina

After these events, claims

that citizen journalism was

a “fad” were discounted

Significant rise in internet usage and uptake of digital technologies

BUT

“the Internet remains far from universally available”. -- G. Meikle.

WAR: WHERE IS RAED?

• Began as a personal blog

• Evolved as he began documenting “life on the ground” in Iraq from 2003

• Soon recast as a source of citizen reporting

• The Guardian (2003): “his weblog had blossomed… from idle chat to startling reportage”.

“One day, like in Afghanistan, those journalists will get bored and go write about Syria or Iran; Iraq will be off your media radar. Out of sight, out of

mind. Lucky you, you have that option. I have to live it”. -- May 2003

Citizen journalism websites• Provide people a direct outlet to post

reportage.• Sri Lanka: “groundviews”.• “to strengthen… marginalised yet vital

voices… this site was the first attempt in Sri Lanka to create a means through which citizens in civil society could pen their own perspectives of life in conflict zones, call attention to humanitarian emergencies, give information on security / ground conditions and present alternatives to the status quo”.

http://www.groundviews.org/

Pakistan floods 2010• Surge in citizen journalism

• Citizen’s Eye: global platform for citizen journalism. Chapters: Pakistan, India, Malaysia, Philippines, Indonesia, UK

• Pakistani founder, Mudassar Khan: offers “grassroots” news – mainstream media limited to “helicopter journalism”.

Tagline: Views & News directly from Citizens

http://www.citizenseye.com/

Citizen’s Eye was contacted by newspapers and a TV channel in Pakistan wanting to use

contributors as sources.

“…we as a citizen journalism body became the source of news for mainstream media” – Khan.

Pakistan floods: video footage

“CITIZENTUBE is a feed of the latest breaking news videos on YouTube”.

http://www.citizentube.com/

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mI3murr9hhkhttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=icOTusCqhL0

Advantages of citizen journalism• “Embedded reporting” – CJs are on the

scene: - Regular journalists often can’t access a crisis/conflict scene immediately or at all due to danger

- On-the-ground perspective: rather than traditional reporting which reports at arm’s length

- Personal, raw, revealing – compelling reportage

- Easy access to other witnesses

- Event reported “as it happens” – immediacy. E.g. London Bombings

- Consequently, beat international media to story. Content often appropriated by mainstream media

Advantages cont...

• Reportage independent of large news organisations

• Free of government & military agenda and defies censorship

• Graininess of footage e.g. London Bombings – more compelling, raw.

Disadvantages• Confirming validity is difficult: - Fact-checking may not be as thorough, info may be inaccurate- Problematic re: mainstream media’s use of CJ material. Arun Gupta, The

Indypendent: “There is potential for just an enormous amount of propaganda and disinformation being spread through Twitter and one has absolutely no way of knowing it”.

• Subjective• Access to Internet & digital technology - not universal.

Steve Outing:[New media expert] “And as with September 11, the tsunamis changed the media landscape. They thrust into the limelight an army of accidental journalists. Perhaps as a result, now is the time when citizen reporters will begin to join the ranks of journalism's working class in informing the public -- not as professional equals, yet in some ways as important in the grand scheme of news”.

BIBLIOGRAPHY• Allan, S 2009, ‘Histories of Citizen Journalism’, in A Stuart and E Thorsen (eds),

Citizen Journalism: Global Perspectives, New York: Peter Lang, pp 17-32.• Channel 4 2009, Tsunami Caught on Camera, 29 December, http://

www.channel4.com/programmes/tsunami-caught-on-camera/episode-guide/series-1/episode-1

• Gupta, A 2009, quoted in Al Jazeera report, http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-VGzm7YNSJg

• Internet Usage Statistics 2010, Internet World Stats 30 June, http://www.internetworldstats.com/stats.htm

• McAthy, R 2010, ‘Pakistan floods: mainstream media turns to citizen journalism’, Journalism.co.uk 5 August, http://www.journalism.co.uk/2/articles/539954.php

• McCarthy, R 2003, ‘Salam’s Story’, The Guardian 30 May, http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2003/may/30/iraq.digitalmedia

• Meikle, G 2009, Interpreting News, New York: Palgrave Macmillan, pp. 170-195.• Outing, S 2005, ‘Taking tsunami coverage into their own hands’, Poynter Online 6

January, http://www.poynter.org/content/content_view.asp?id=76520• Srinivas, S 2005, ‘Online Citizen Journalists Respond to South Asian Disaster’,

OJR 7 January, http://www.ojr.org/ojr/stories/050107srinivas/