Concerned Citizens: Where Civilian Journalism Fits In.
Civilian Journalists may have a different outlook on news and current events but this is precisely what makes them so valuable, writes Samuel Trask-Marino.
The relationship between civilian journalists and journalists is quite a complicated one, as many similarities are seen in both positions. We’re both looking to tell stories and we’re both looking for a public response. In a number of cases civilian journalists are necessary. They act as a new arm to modern journalism. They’re able to cover topics that journalists can’t, and as a public model civilian journalists can be everywhere at once. Fundamentally isn’t it a good thing that more people are taking an interest in the creation of news?
In 2012 Egypt was undergoing a revolution. Throughout November there were riots and protests in Cairo, as the leader at the time, President Mohamed Morsi El Ayat, decided to grant himself unlimited power, independent from government review. From these horrific events there came a number of amazing photographs that captured the true feeling of that time. These photos did not come from the camera of a trained journalist they came from citizen photo-journalist Hasan Amin who was actually a genetics graduate turned photo enthusiast. Amin attended these protests with his camera in hand and was able to accurately depict sentiment on the ground.
In 2014 there were large scale demonstrations in the streets of Ferguson, Missouri, following the fatal shooting of Michael Brown. Now in times like this the position of citizen journalist becomes an incredibly powerful one. Often the citizens who are reporting the story are also directly involved with it. This is one of the only times that a writer can be a part of the story and also remain credible when the piece is published. It is not that people don’t understand that this person isn’t being objective, in fact it’s the subjective nature of the civilian journalist that makes the stories they’re telling that much more interesting.
Unlike a professional journalist the civilian journalist will often only write stories that they have a direct involvement in, either to garner support from the community, expose a problem in society, or simply tell a story about something of interest that they’re involved in. Like the 2014 Ferguson incident, and the Death of Freddie Gray in Baltimore a year later, the people capturing these stories are exclusively a part of these communities that were directly affected. These writers are both the talent and the producer of the stories and often will use personal opinion directly to form their story.
These civilian writers are also able to assist through news oriented forums, including a number of reddit pages and blogs, and in many circumstances news agencies will reach out to these people for information on a certain story. The differences however come in the traditional training in the field. It’s this knowledge and professional guidelines that set us apart from the average writer. It’s not uncommon for Journalists to make mistakes however when that does occur there are set guidelines in place to account for these.
In the frenetic field of current affairs, modern citizen journalists play an important role in society. With the magnitude of ways news stories and headlines are presented in this day and age, citizen journalists definitely have a role to play.
