Citizen journalism examples

“Baghdad blogger” Salam Pax

Salam Pax

• Iraqi blogger.• Chronicled his life 2002- 2004 – details of

Iraq war, anti- Saddam (would have been punishable by death).

“I try to dispel the image that Muslims and Arabs suffer from - mostly by our own doing I have to say - in the rest of the world. I am no missionary and don’t want to be. I run several internet websites that are geared to do just that, create a better understanding that we’re not all nuts hell-bent on world destruction.”

Mahmood’s den• Started in Bahrain, April 2003.• Political activist – blogs about (and

criticises ) Bahraini government.• Currently facing legal action.

African Eye• Set up to promote HIV awareness. (as well

as hepatitis and education).• Aims to increase education, improve

quality of life and decrease mortality.

Iranian website (means “happened”)

ZOLA & THE NAILHOUSE

• Internet-> traditional media, then mutual reinforcement

• When media coverage was shut down, there was so much on the internet the ban was ineffectual

Zola and the Nailhouse• Chinese blogger – one of the first citizen

journalists.• ‘The Nailhouse’ is a house a woman

wouldn’t move out of (property developers)– focussed on the issues when no- one was reporting on – aim to raise awareness and help.

Global Voices Online

Global Voices Online• International community – reports on blogs

and citizen media from around the world, aim to translate and share.

• Function in many, varied regions – world- wide news coverage. (500 countries).

• 121 different languages.

Oh my news• South Korean online news website –

“every citizen is a reporter”.• Founder is considered the founder of

citizen journalism.• High Alexa rank (7,129) – shows

importance in Korea.

Text

127 million people2nd largest world economy12582 CNN.com stories

130 million people54th largest world economy937 CNN stories

(Data courtesy Ethan Zuckerman http://ethanzuckerman.com/)

Obstacles to a truly Global Conversation:

• ATTENTION: The caring problem. What people need to know vs. what they enjoy knowing and talking about.

• LANGUAGE: The internet is becoming more multi-lingual… translation requires effort.

• ACCESS: The people whose voices we most need to hear are the ones who are least able to speak out online. (Internet 40x more expensive for Africans than Americans!)

• CENSORSHIP: Roughly 40 national governments now censor their Internet. (For more info see OpenNet.net)