BEARING WITNESS: CITIZEN JOURNALISM AND HUMAN RIGHTS ISSUES
Authors: Stuart Allen, Prasun Sonwalkar and Cynthia Carter
Presentation: Muhammad Sheharyar Rana
What is Citizen Journalism?
The Answer• When ordinary citizens/people such as ourselves, start reporting/highlighting informative issues faced by the local masses•When ordinary people start performing the duties of a news reporter•When such duties are performed they become citizen journalists•And the process that involves these citizens reporting informative news stories is known as citizen journalism.
The main theme of the article revolves around how the concept and principle of citizen journalism has paved way in everyday life, demonstrating its effectiveness with regard to 3 situations: 2004 South Asian Tsunami Human Rights abuses in India’s north
east region Palestinian Crisis in Occupied Territories.
Palestinian Crisis in the Occupied Territories. Impact of Citizen Journalism.
Bloggers creating a platform for ordinary Palestinians to give an account of the atrocities they have to face in everyday life.
Electronic Intifada (EI) http://electronicintifada.net/blog
Diaries: Live from Palestine
Part of the Citizen Journalism section of EI
Active since 2002 and has become a regular feature.
Highlights striking updates and stories of Palestinians under military invasion.
Citizen journalist reports almost each day.
Dream of Returning Home
Our Day Will Come (Soon)
Citizen Journalism in India India’s Widening
MediaLandscape.
The Internet: Essence of Citizen Journalism in IndiaWith the ever increase
usage of internet in India, citizen journalism is on the rise.
India’s bloggers have become more active than ever and continue to grow in number talking on a range of issues.
Internet is giving average ordinary people a chance to transmit information globally.
Headlines Today Blogs
www.merinews.com
Established in 2006 – India’s website dedicated to citizen journalism.
Over 50,000 citizen journalists.
News by normal people, not “journalists”
Anyone who would like to become a citizen journalist can submit their contributions on merinews.com.
Activity: Compare and Contrast
How is merinews.com different from a professional news web site such as Headlines Today or CNN IBN?
Tweet your findings to #mdia5003
Human Rights Violations: reporting online in India.
Evolution of online media helps students understand the power of news media (Beers 2006)
Some regions and their issues are being neglected by mainstream politically powerful media.
Citizen Journalists highlight these issues without bias and fear of mainstream media.
‘Beers, D (2006), ‘The public sphere and online, independent journalism’, Canadian Journal of Education / Revue canadienne de l'éducation, Vol. 29, No. 1, pp. 109-130.
Irom Sharmila ChanuPoet from Manipur who
protested against the AFSPA.
Manipur part of the seven states that have been in some form of conflict or the other since independence.
Irom decides to “fast unto death” as form of protest.
Her efforts commented and reported by many citizens in blogs on Manipur websites.
Manipuronline.com 30 Minutes: Irom Sharmila
Special
Two Online Articles of Interest
Citizen Journalism Sucks
Future of Citizen Journalism?
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