THE REVERSE EVOLUTION OF MEDIA

THROUGH CITIZEN JOURNALISM

-A presentation by Ashwini Ashok Kumar Nair MCS-2

CITIZEN JOURNALISM

WHAT I AM GOING TO SPEAK ABOUT

• Evolution of media

• Citizen Journalism

• Blogging and Micro-blogging

• The reverberations (impact) of CJ

• Indian scenario of CJ

• Arguments against and for CJ

• One kind of conclusion

• Misbalance in the evolution

CITIZEN JOURNALISM

EVOLUTION OF MEDIA AND SOCIETY

• Symbiotic Relationship

• Give and take system

EXAMPLES OF THE ‘BARTER SYSTEM’

• Thought-provoking films like Taare Zameen Par

• Advertisements- TATA tea Jaago Re

• Newspapers- TOI’s Rahul Mangaonkar RTI campaign

CITIZEN JOURNALISM

CITIZEN JOURNALISM

• Any user-generated content-blogs, micro-blog updates etc.

• “…members of public having active role in collecting, reporting, analyzing and disseminating news or information…”

• Early public journalism-time consuming, episodic

• Technology solved this issue and anybody could record and distribute

• Roots-printed street pamphlet distribution

• Father of CJ-Dan Gillmor

CITIZEN JOURNALISM

BLOGGING AND MICRO-BLOGGING

• Major part of CJ- Crisis reporting

• Examples

CITIZEN JOURNALISM

REVERBERATIONS…

• Themeparkrider.com- 2001-1st to win an Online Journalism Award for ‘Accident Reporting’ by visitors

• ‘Camera’-witness accounts during 9/11

Pics by Leonardo Black, vigilantwarrior.wordpress.com, NY

• 2004 Tsunami pictures by holiday-makers in Indonesia

CITIZEN JOURNALISM

REVERBERATIONS…contd.

• 2009 Iranian Elections-Micro-blogging helped as outside media was banned

• Large chunk of moolah of big banner films affected- Raavan, Kites

Pic by Ali Murtuza Pic by Deepthi R

CITIZEN JOURNALISM

REVERBERATIONS- A recent example.

• 26/11 first-hand report by CJ-Vinukumar Ranganathan News channels too took his images

Pics by Vinukumar Ranganathan

CITIZEN JOURNALISM

REVERBERATIONS- A recent example

• On the night of 26/11, Tweetscoop graph- tweets on Mumbai at 1000/hour

• Updates like @Mumbai-Hospital update. Shots still being fired. Blood needed at JJ hospital and numbers of blood banks.

• Pictures shared by 47 year old Arun Shanbaug on twitter

CITIZEN JOURNALISM

THE DEBATE

• Mixed reviews with Indian media as the only positive one

Against

- open, collaborative, distributive

- objectivity and 3 Es of the professionals cannot be matched

- Amateurs can learn-but what is the point without paychecks?

- dividing line- professional practice and observational code of ethics

CITIZEN JOURNALISM

For

- Former audience made realer, less fictional, more able and contributive

- No need of massive technical support- it is just a mobile phone and internet connection

- A platform for common man to ‘vent out’- democracy one step further

- less conflict of interest and more reasons to tell the truth

- no more journalism-commodity to please advertisers

- versatility and availability of medium- Zola Zou- Chinese vegetable vendor

CITIZEN JOURNALISM

INDIAN SCENARIO

• Only country with traditional media’s full acceptance and encouragement

• MTV’s My India Report, Ibnlive’s Citizen Journalist, Amrita TV’s ‘Be a Citizen Journalist’ reality show

• Many CJ sites exist

•Merinews.com-1st CJ site in India, Purdafash.com, CGnet.com of the state govt of Chhattisgarh

• Discuss more serious issues, hence popular

• Internet reach in India-MAJOR SETBACK with online CJ

CITIZEN JOURNALISM

“journalism has actually come a whole circle with CJ. The foundation of journalism is freedom of press. Laws were made to suppress this. And CJ now has defied every law suppressing the freedom because it is on a platform that is almost

impossible to consolidate. ”Maryrose PapandreaLaw CounselorBoston College

HISTORY REPEATS ITSELF…

CITIZEN JOURNALISM

Getting back….MISBALANCE IN THE SYMBIOTIC EVOLUTION

• Entry of the Internet- massive diversification of media

• Audience has power to become creators with CJ

• How exactly is it OPPOSITE?

• Belief in the audience-created content- professionals’ role weakens

ONE KIND OF CONCLUSION

Prof BK KuthialaKurukshetra University

“ …a viable economically stablesystem needs to develop… the argument is if a residential complex for visitors to a tourist place can be run as a social service on the basis of contributions as charity, why cannot mass communication system be also organized on sharing basis. After all communication is a very essential activity that sustains the

communities at all levels.”

CITIZEN JOURNALISM

CITIZEN JOURNALISM

CONCLUSION

• CJ ethical or not?

•Whether to call it ‘journalism’ or not?

• All YOU decide

CITIZEN JOURNALISM

THANK YOU ALL