BEARING WITNESS: CITIZEN JOURNALISM AND HUMAN RIGHTS ISSUES

Allan S, Sonwalkarb P, and Carterc C 2007, ‘ Bearing witness: Citizen journalism and human rights issues’, Globalization, Societies and Education, Vol. 5, No.3,

pp. 373–389.

Rihab Alniyadi

2 August 2012

AGENDA Citizen journalism VS Mainstream journalism

Three cases of citizen journalism

Further examples

New media landscape

Allan S, Sonwalkarb P, and Carterc C 2007, ‘ Bearing witness: Citizen journalism and human rights issues’, Globalization, Societies and

Education, Vol. 5, No.3, pp. 373–389.

THE “OTHERING CULTURE” IS CHALLENGED

CJ challenges the “othering culture” by:

Breaking down the ‘us and them’ dichotomies in reporting.

Creating spaces allowing the people to report their own suffering to the world

Allan S, Sonwalkarb P, and Carterc C 2007, ‘ Bearing witness: Citizen journalism and human rights issues’, Globalization, Societies and Education,

Vol. 5, No.3, pp. 373–389.

THE 2004 SOUTH ASIAN TSUNAMI

55,000 tsunami related blogs appeared over the first three days:

Great contribution to tell stories.

Supplementing the mainstream media by providing a bottom-up coverage

Allan S, Sonwalkarb P, and Carterc C 2007, ‘ Bearing witness: Citizen journalism and human rights issues’, Globalization, Societies and Education,

Vol. 5, No.3, pp. 373–389.

MJ: “US”: AMERICAN RELIEF

Allan S, Sonwalkarb P, and Carterc C 2007, ‘ Bearing witness: Citizen journalism and human rights issues’, Globalization, Societies and Education, Vol. 5, No.3,

pp. 373–389.

CJ: “THEM”: BOXING DAY, PEOPLE SUFFERING

Allan S, Sonwalkarb P, and Carterc C 2007, ‘ Bearing witness: Citizen journalism and human rights issues’, Globalization, Societies and Education,

Vol. 5, No.3, pp. 373–389.

Few online news organizations like MSNBC.com and CNN, took advantage of citizen journalists to gather information by creating booth for ordinary people to report.

Allan S, Sonwalkarb P, and Carterc C 2007, ‘ Bearing witness: Citizen journalism and human rights issues’, Globalization, Societies and Education,

Vol. 5, No.3, pp. 373–389.

CITIZEN JOURNALISM IN INDIA

“Us”: politics, Muslim/Hindu,

Celebrities.

“Them”: human rights violations

in north-eastern states.

Allan S, Sonwalkarb P, and Carterc C 2007, ‘ Bearing witness: Citizen journalism and human rights issues’, Globalization, Societies and Education,

Vol. 5, No.3, pp. 373–389.

CITIZEN JOURNALISM IN INDIA

Sources of news

Raising awareness of events and evoking reactions in other parts of India; citizens used the Internet as a way to respond to the human rights violations in north-eastern states.

Linking Indians to organize a protest.Allan S, Sonwalkarb P, and Carterc C 2007, ‘ Bearing witness: Citizen

journalism and human rights issues’, Globalization, Societies and Education, Vol. 5, No.3, pp. 373–389.

CITIZEN JOURNALISM IN THE OCCUPIED PALESTINIAN TERRITORIES

“Us”: US-Israel efforts to achieve the peace

“Them”: Palestinian suffering

Allan S, Sonwalkarb P, and Carterc C 2007, ‘ Bearing witness: Citizen journalism and human rights issues’, Globalization, Societies and Education,

Vol. 5, No.3, pp. 373–389.

CITIZEN JOURNALISM IN THE OCCUPIED PALESTINIAN TERRITORIES

Palestinian used the Internet to gain international attention through:

Electronic Intifada website: an English website that challenge the lack of critical media coverage of the conflict between Palestine and Israel.

Personal blogsAllan S, Sonwalkarb P, and Carterc C 2007, ‘ Bearing witness: Citizen

journalism and human rights issues’, Globalization, Societies and Education, Vol. 5, No.3, pp. 373–389.

EXAMPLE OF ONLINE REPORTING:

Ushahidi.com: Ushahidi.com is a CJ site that was set up to

inform people about violence incidents reported throughout Kenya and to create open-source platform where citizens from all over the world can report on events.

http://lnicolegates.wordpress.com/2012/04/06/citizen-journalism/

Allan S, Sonwalkarb P, and Carterc C 2007, ‘ Bearing witness: Citizen journalism and human rights issues’, Globalization, Societies and Education,

Vol. 5, No.3, pp. 373–389.

CITIZEN JOURNALISTS AS EYEWITNESS:

Pakistan floods in 2010

September 11

Allan S, Sonwalkarb P, and Carterc C 2007, ‘ Bearing witness: Citizen journalism and human rights issues’, Globalization, Societies and Education,

Vol. 5, No.3, pp. 373–389.

CONCLUSION: NEW MEDIA LANDSCAPE

Allan S, Sonwalkarb P, and Carterc C 2007, ‘ Bearing witness: Citizen journalism and human rights issues’, Globalization, Societies and

Education, Vol. 5, No.3, pp. 373–389.

“The tsunamis changed the media landscape. It is now is the time when citizen reporters will begin to join the ranks of journalism’ in informing the public — not as professional equals, yet in some ways as important in the grand scheme of news” Steve Outing

Media Expert

EXERCISE

In groups, discuss the following questions and tweet your answers to #mdia5003:

1. Considering the concepts we looked at, who is a journalist in today’s media?

2. Have you ever experience being a citizen journalist? In what way?

Allan S, Sonwalkarb P, and Carterc C 2007, ‘ Bearing witness: Citizen journalism and human rights issues’, Globalization, Societies and Education,

Vol. 5, No.3, pp. 373–389.

BIBLIOGRAPHY Allan, S 2011, ‘ Journalism and the culture of othering’,

Brazilian Journalism Research, Vol. 6, Iss. 2, pp. 26-40, accessed 28 July 2012 from UNSW library database.

Allan S, Sonwalkarb P, and Carterc C 2007, ‘ Bearing witness: Citizen journalism and human rights issues’, Globalization, Societies and Education, Vol. 5, No.3, pp. 373–389.

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BIBLIOGRAPHY Outing, S 2005, ‘Taking Tsunami Coverage into Their Own

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Two year old Palestinian boy, image, accessed 31 July 2012, <http://www.terisr.50webs.com/slides/Israel,Terrorist,state,Attacks,to,Palestine.html>.