The impact of ‘citizen journalism’ on the public sphere
“Nowadays we are living in a world that has become radically interconnected, interdependent and communicated in the formations and flows of the media.” — Stuart Allan
During the twentieth century, the audio-visual communication has supplanted the writing one which has dominated the informational sphere for a long time.
The emergence of a new generation of websites and social networks has helped to found new areas of communication, information and journalism for the twenty-first century.
Because of the efficient democratisation of the multimedia and the new Information and Communication Technology (ICT), every citizen can “potentially become a reporter”, by proposing information, sometimes at high added value. However, they do not seem to be concerned with the traditional gate-keeper role of journalism.
News judgment, verifying facts, vetting sources and aggregation are fundamental notions of gatekeeping and McCombs and Shaw pointed out that this concept is related to the newer concept and agenda-setting.
According to Ayelet Malinsky, international journalism studies asserts that ‘journalists are the “gate- keepers” for knowledge and understanding on international happenings and, accordingly, must apply a set of norms to their professional practice’.
In the modern media landscape, some journalists are no longer reporting original material, but rather drawing from outside reports to collect and curate the day’s top headlines for re-publication. This process is known as aggregation. A study in the “Journal of Mass Media Ethics” noted that even aggregation entails a gatekeeping function, as certain items are selected for inclusion, while others are excluded.
However, people such as Stuart Allan and Einar Thorsen argue that the ‘citizen journalists’ disruption of such hierarchies cannot solely be attributed to the rise of digital technologies, though these technologies do indeed optimize the propagation of citizen messages’ (Citizen Journalism: Global Perspectives, 2009).
Citizen journalism was not invented when the Internet appeared; however, this new way of communicating seems to have democratized and shall be seen as a media tool that highlights a public issue.
With the popularity of citizen journalism growing, it is not difficult to wonder if it could replace professional journalism and take a larger place into media corporations.
How to define ‘citizen journalism’ ?
According to Stuart Allan and Einar Thorsen (Citizen Journalism,: global perspectives. NewYork: Lang Publishing, 2009) this type of journalism ‘is animated by differing conceptions of both “citizenship” and “journalism”, and practised under very different political regimes around the world. Citizen journalism(s) now assert their presence outside, through and within today’s mainstream media.’
Thus, citizen journalism is an aspect of civic media that can be defined by the utilisation of communication tools, brought with Internet — websites, forums, every type of blogs such as current affairs-based blogging, as well as photo and video sharing, or eyewitness commentary posting on events, by a large amount of people around the world.
Also called “public”, “participatory”, “democratic”, “guerrilla”, or “street” journalism, citizen journalism permits creation and expression, as well as documentation and information, by users engaged in journalistic practices.
Different schools regarding ‘citizen journalism’
“No longer could politicians say what they believe in private and dissemble in public. A blogger would always expose the truth.” — Tim Luckhurst, professor of journalism, University of Kent
As Paola Prado summarizes in her article, they are different school regarding the concept of ‘citizen journalism’.
On one hand Nip (2006) defines citizen journalists as ‘producers and publishers of original news content, who are not assisted or do not require the participation of professional journalists or established media outlets’.
On the other hand the scholar Luke Goode (2009) believes citizen journalists are ‘individuals who contribute news content to mainstream media outlets and may be aligned with particular social movements’.
“The media is the message” — Marshall McLuhan
The notion of reliability from the media is dividing people. Amanda Harper, in her report ‘citizen journalism vs professional journalism’, gathered in a video she conducted, people’s reaction to the question “can citizen journalism replace professional journalism? Should it?”.
Her initiative aims to understand people’s point of view on the matter and evaluate which source between the citizen and the professional journalism is seen as the more reliable.
If some would definitely not trust either one, others are distrustful towards news organizations — as they believe media can disclose whatever information they want — others would feel trusting both — citizen and profession journalism — but will cross-check information from a media.
For others, opinion bloggers are trustful because “at least their opinions are real”. But finding a well-resourced, reliable news company it is far better than citizen blogs. This is the idea expressed by the greater number.
“If a journalist is personal she/he is not professional. Leaving the personal, emotional, social and political subject at the door.” — Boudana
Indeed a journalist must remain objective and follow ethics rules. The ‘Citizen journalist’ does not seem to pay attention to these rules for the good reasons that he/she might not be aware of them and or is just thinking about making the buzz.
“Objectivity is then a ‘performance’, which can be ‘evaluated by the degree of truth that characterizes the journalist’s report’. — Bolette B Blaagaard
Freedom of expression and equality of opportunity are essential conditions for the functioning of the public sphere in society. Their users to publish comments often use new organizations’ websites such as The Guardian.com or their social networks’ accounts — Facebook andTwitter.
If some see it as a way to criticize the journalist work by writing derogatory comments of any kind, others regard it as an opportunity to react by sharing appreciable comments, raising an issue or adding a piece of information, that the journalist has not mentioned, probably because he was not aware of.
Depending on the story, a comment will be more appreciated than another. Indeed if it is regarding a news event — house fire for example — that just happened, a witness comment would be relevant. As Steve Outing believe that citizen contributions ‘when appropriate, is a great way to offer the community better and deeper coverage than is possible with a lone professional reporter.’
Allan names this notion: ‘accidental journalism’. Referring to the London bombing attacks of July 2005, he is quoting in his book BBC’s director of news, Helen Boaden who gave a statement about the media new strategy that saw this event as a “watershed” in term of the implication of citizen in the journalism area: “The point of which the BBC knew that news gathering had changed forever” (2008).
Professional and citizen journalists: two ways of proceeding
Citizen journalists can violate journalism ethics codes. In the case of any terrorist attack; videos or photos circulating are often on social networks. If news organisations can benefit from it, it also raises a fundamental issue: those of the person’s privacy.
Some have to be removed from the web platforms, as its content can be shocking and can affect a person’s dignity. Journalists are, however, aware of what they are allowed to publish or not. It does not mean they always respect the deontology and ethics codes they did commit to respect.
‘A journalist does nothing to intrude into anybody’s private life, grief or distress unless justified by overriding consideration of the public interest.’ (6) A notion referenced in the National Union of Journalists code of conduct that since 1936, set out the main principles of UK and Irish Journalism.
Just need to wonder how far it is possible to go, even when it is a public interest. Journalists are supposed to have more knowledge on dealing with a difficult issue than a citizen.
According to Bolette Baagaard, writer of ‘Shifting boundaries: Objectivity, citizen journalism and tomorrow’s journalists’, ‘a journalist is not just any victim of natural disasters, but someone who is able to expect to stand above the panic and fear and do a report’.
The aspect of objectivity, as well mentioned by her is fundamental. It is ‘a set of practices that provide an ethical evaluation and interpretation, grounded in the particular situation and specific to the news-medium for which the journalist works’. It however, does not mean that there is one truth, just that journalists are more able to tell a story than the citizens because they have more distance and knows better which words to use not to be too “cash”.
Current Affairs are definitely benefiting from this new journalism and video testimony from ordinary citizens as attests Kate Bulkley, media and tech journalist, in her article in The Guardian.
Indeed, the citizen participation offers a range of new sources to media organisations. Up to them to screen. “Social networks are opening up whole new vistas for documentary filmmakers. You can make the most amazing films using content from social networks” enthuses Chris Shaw, editorial ITN Productions director.
News organizations often require the intervention of qualified persons — expect on psychology as an example — on a topic to improve the quality of the article or any other production. Indeed, the help of this type of citizen is crucial as he has knowledge on a topic that a journalist does not have.
The citizen journalist; an important tool for the professional one
Called “participatory” journalism or reporting, this new journalism happens when the reader is collaborating with the journalist. Media now call on to people to enrich their content as it is notably the case of France 24, the French television that also broadcast in English, Spanish, Arabic and Persian.
Launched in 2007, The Observers is France 24 platform that gives people the opportunity to become a real participant — in the an observer — in news spreading.
If France 24 already counts 430 journalists from 35 nationalities, The Observers helped the company building a 5 000 contributors network in a bit more than ten years.
A person keen to participate sends photos, videos and testimonies and the journalist selects, verifies, translates and explains every content before broadcasting it.
The famous American television channel Cable News Network (CNN) also fall back on this technic.
CNN iReport, the channel launched in 2010 is “an entirely user-generated site where the content is determined by the community.” By this action, the company have decided to put the citizen at the centre of the information.
He is no longer a spectator but has become an actor. This is clearly the company will, declaring in a statement to journalists: “iReport.com is an entirely user-generated site where the content is determined by the community.”
Lindsay Palmer who has devoted an essay on the CNN iReport attests that, in December 2010, “CNN’s four-year-old citizen journalism website heralded the completion on the Global Challenge an assignment that invited “iReporters” to help CNN “cover the globe” by uploading images from “every single country.”
She believes this interactive map “gives the impression that the journalistic endeavour to map the world was now a collaboration between CNN employees and the network’s global public.”
iReporters use CNN’s influence to disseminate their messages across a wide variety of multimedia platforms, unlike many amateur bloggers whose messages can sometimes only reach a limited number of people. Both benefit from this system: iReporters get their unpaid content to be seen by a wider audience, lighting social hierarchies associated for a long time with traditional journalism.
“The Internet and blogosphere only become interesting when they serve to challenge the mainstream as crucial elements in progressive social and political movements.” — Richard Keeble, Professor of journalism at the University of Lincoln
With the creation of the Internet came blogs. However, it is only since recently that they seem to take more space and have a real impact on people. Some of them use the citizen bloghouse as a “service that can be an offer to the citizen that want to take part of the news blog” explains Steve Outings in The 11 Layers of Citizen Journalism.
Allan and Thorsen, commenting on the role of citizen blogs during the 2003 Iraq invasion, believes that “these emergent forms of journalism have the capacity to bring to bear alternative perspectives, contexts and ideological diversity to war reporting, providing users with the means to connect with distant voices otherwise being marginalised, if not silenced altogether, from across the globe”.
The wiki journalism is other aspect of participatory journalism where readers are editors. People are using wiki technology — they can modify a content straight from the website software — to facilitate collaborations between users. Wikinews is the largest example of a free-content news source.
If everybody becomes a journalist by publishing content, then how can journalists still be journalists?
According to Tim Luckhurst, “professional journalism will survive because it is necessary and the market will find a way to supply it.”
Henrik Örnebring in his article ‘Anything you can do, I can do better? Professional journalists on citizen journalism in six countries’, reseals the result of a recent survey realised on journalists from 6 European countries: UK, Estonia, Germany, Italy, Poland and Sweden.
He mentions a recent survey, realised by O’Sullivan and Heinonen, who interviewed journalists in 11 European countries about a possible concern regarding the future of their profession. It reveals that most of them did not feel particularly threatened by citizen journalism and other media alternatives; they were 51% to think citizen does not constitute “real journalism”. Nevertheless, it is more a tool that benefits journalism, as it increases contacts with the audience.
However, citizen journalism is not contested or controversial as some government repression of citizen journalists is a real problem in many countries around the world, in China as an example.
The increase of citizen journalism has involved a change in the perception of journalism. The ‘consequence of “ordinary” person’s effort at bridging the alienating gap between traditional journalism and its public’ (Turner, 2010), is due to a disaffection towards traditional news media that provide a deemed less and less satisfactory content.
Citizen journalism can, therefore, be viewed as a direct response to lapses in the performance of the traditional mass media role in the public sphere.
However, professional journalism remains for scholars such as Paparcharissi, “the guardian of democracy”. Frosh, Pinchevski (2009) and Gillmor (2004) add that ‘this guardianship is increasingly perceived as a failure, suggesting the need for what the more optimistic proponents of citizen journalism identify as media witnessing.’
‘No longer do journalists pass down the world ‘from on high’, accessing information that only journalists can reach and offering the distillation of this wisdom to others; all can access the information, and all can take part in the debate’. — Frost
The two types of journalism sustain a collaborative relationship. Henceforth, the citizen goes from the role of simple receiver to the one of transmitter, becoming itself a media.
And with the emergence of social networks such as Twitter, Facebook, YouTube, as well as blogs, citizen journalists have new opportunities of joining the ranks of mainstream and elite journalists in producing news and engaging audiences.
Thus, alternative journalism plays the multiple roles of exposing corruption, encouraging accountability, documenting abuses of power, and giving alternative views on local and international current affairs. However, it is important to highlight that journalism is a profession that requires particular knowledge, notably in term of ethics and deontology.
People tend to forget this with the numeric area we are living in. And citizen journalism is just another journalistic tool to find new angles and sources, or a source in its own right. It has a significant impact on the professional journalism, however, it has its limits. On one hand, it could tend towards sensationalism and in the other hand the question of objectivity is often not respected.
