Citizen Journalism in Politics: Value in public voices.
In today’s digital age, is the value of journalistic work from citizens increasing?
Firstly, what exactly qualifies someone to be a citizen journalist, and what do they do? As Diana Owen suggests, an active role on the part of a member of the public in aspects of journalism is indeed enough to qualify them as a citizen journalist. The most interesting point, however, I feel is the seemingly increasing reliance on technology as an adequate medium by which to disseminate such information. This drive to technology is paralleled by our — the public’s — increasing dependance on our smartphones, our tablets and our computers. I have inserted an audio definition of citizen journalism for those who wish to listen to a more in depth description whilst reading the article.
“The act of a citizen, or group of citizens playing an active role in the process of collecting, reporting, analysing and disseminating news and information…encompassing a “wide range of digital content” — Diana Owen. Original article here.
In order to quantify this notion of increased dependancy, and indeed to validate it, I did some digging regarding UK computer literacy rates, and the consumption rates of paper newspapers in recent years. According to a report delivered to the House of Lords, [computer] literacy rates increased from 88% to 89% in the course of 1 year, whilst the percentage of those who had never used the internet dropped from 10% to 9% in the same tenure. Parallel to this, The Sun — the UK’s most popular newspaper by circulation — has seen a ~62% decline in hard copy prints of their newspaper from 3,877,097 to 1,475,372 (Source ABC) in the time it has taken me to reach 21 years old, 1997–2018. Moreover, 2.1 billion people across the planet now own smartphones.
This illustrates the tendency towards online consumption over the physical written word. In addition to this, the only criteria really in place for becoming an agent of the citizen journalist movement is access to a smartphone, WiFi or a sufficient internet connection. Thus, the growing internet age grants easier access to dissemination of information (citizen journalism), and to the consumption of such information.
The Value of Citizen Journalism
Now that we are aware of exactly what constitutes citizen journalism, and have a further understanding of how poignant the topic is now more than ever, given the increasing computer literacy and decline of physical newspapers in favour of an online counterpart that is not only portable, instantly accessible but also, often, free, we may explore the value of such a constituent of journalism.
“…the citizen journalist provides invaluable information that can democratise media, as well as nations…” — Layla Revis. Original article here.
Firstly, and I think perhaps most importantly, is the concept of “answering to someone”. By this I mean the agendas of bigger news corporations that, by design, influence the employee — the individual journalist — such that their reporting must not only seek to adhere to the prototypical values of journalism (discussed more thoroughly in my previous blog on (The Fourth Estate), but also to align with the aforementioned agenda that the news network purports.
These two avenues of adherence can and do cause conflict with each other, they are not always mutually inclusive, as mentioned in my previous blog, and can impede the validity, accuracy and trustworthiness of an article, a journalist or even the corporation as an entity. This is where citizen journalism tends to diverge in purpose. It allows for a more well informed public, by proposing stories that are often meaningful to the reporter, which increases the likelihood of their transparency.
“This philosophy radically departs from mainstream journalism, an overarching goal of which is to sell its product…” — Layla Revis. Original article here.
There is often no financial gain from partaking in citizen journalism. Participation is often free. Yes, it does require the possession of adequate technology, but these technologies are common place anyway, it just presents a permutation of use.
As such, one line of argument follows that although it is undoubtedly true that individual parties will continue to act in the interest of a particular opinion, it is often their opinion, and although we must still allow for the possibility of bias, concealment of facts and the other pitfalls laid out for a would be potential journalist, citizen journalism is, as an entity, more reliable, as it operates outside the biases of mass media conglomerates. It can operate without fear of backlash, as the word of one citizen does only represent one citizen, whereas the word of one reporter is often conflated to represent entire media stations, especially when that word is contentious.
Opposing Angle
It is worth noting, however, that, as with anything, there is a tail to every head. It may be argued that citizen journalism pertaining to highly emotive topics, such as sports journalism, can be tainted by an acute emotional reaction to the topic of discussion.
For example, when reporting an incident concerning, say, a rival football club, it is plausible that the emotional disconnection to the topic can influence the substance of the reporting. This is essentially the same pitfall that a mass media reporter may fall victim to — bias — just on an emotive scale rather than the scale of an agenda. Whichever side of the proverbial fence you choose to lean, it is vital you don’t lean so far that you fall to that side entirely, as there is no denying the fact that citizen journalism in 2019 and onwards is relevant and worth discussion.
Examples
Though I have discussed the theoretical application and value of this particular strand of journalism, I thought it necessary and truth be told to illustrate the topic with an appropriate example of effective citizen journalism relating to political reporting.
Tim Pool (linked above), is a YouTuber focussing on citizen journalism surrounding politics. In an interview with John Stossel, Tim identified himself as politically left-leaning. This is important as his political inclination appears to have little to no effect upon his reporting, as he seeks to uncover the truth, irrespective of which type of light it shines upon a particular party. I will discuss some poignant examples relating to Tim’s work to illustrate the worth of citizen journalism.
Indigenous People’s March
The incident occurred in January 2019 at the Lincoln Memorial. The news story was originally crafted to show Nick Sandmann, a member of Covington Catholic High school confront US veteran Nathan Phillips at a pro life march whilst wearing a MAGA hat. Tim, however, used an extended video of the incident to help show that it was not as straight forward as it may have seemed, in fact showing that the events occurred inversely to how they were initially reported (see below).
“all of these big news outlets, even the Washington Post, CNN, they immediately made the assumption [that] he must be a racist, sneering at this Native American man, I didn’t make that assumption” — Tim Pool. Full clip can be found here
The repercussions from Tim’s video were profound. Major news outlets were forced to rewrite their articles taking into account the new evidence. The above photo now is indicative of such a rewritten article, but the above extract is very similar to the original, seeming to cast blame on the high school students. The reaction was so strong, in fact, that upon exposure of the further evidence, Nick, as well as other students, were approved to file a $250m lawsuit against NBC on defamation charges.
“Pro-life teen Nick Sandmann’s defamation suit against NBC for [their] coverage of him and his classmates at this year’s March for Life can proceed…” — Calvin Freiburger, writer for Lifesitenews. Original article here.
There are further examples of his work, another fascinating video focuses on the topic of “No Go Zones” in Sweden, in which he exposes falsities on the part of Donald Trump. I have linked the full video below for those of you who are interested.
Final thoughts, then. These examples both relate closely to that which I was discussing previously in the blog, the objectivity of citizen journalists and their ability and tendency to function above and outside of any biases mass media outlets may possess. The political disposition of any one person is not usually important, each person is entitled to have their own private opinion and that is not mine or anyone else’s business.
However, the fact that Tim openly admits that he is left leaning lends all the more credence to the fact that his journalistic work operates outside of this disposition and that he does indeed seek to know the truth regarding political topics. In my first example, the story is in favour of a likely republican (indicated by the MAGA hat and advocacy for Pro-Life movements), though the second example inverts this and exposes a republican’s falsities.
Therefore, the ability to operate objectively in the interest of fairness and truth — which is reminiscent of the archetypal journalistic principles — can be put above any personal biases or dispositions. Not only is the work exemplary in this regard, it also led to a defamation case against a mass media outlet, which is the type of lawsuit impartiality, objectivity and truthfulness are meant to avoid.
Through these examples and the clear cut statistics on our ever increasing reliance upon technology (the salient domain of the citizen journalist), it seems evident that the topic is well worth discussion, and has many attributes in its favour regarding the dissemination of information in the journalistic world.
Be sure to follow me on Twitter for the latest political and journalism related content.
