aliciapalimaka’s blog

At the centre of new media technologies is the phenomenon of produsage.  As discussed in my previous blog, produsage is where everyday individuals have become both users and producers of online digital media content (Bruns 2007).  Citizen journalism is an important and powerful form of produsage, transforming the consumption and engagement of news and current affairs, challenging the role of journalism and bringing significant social change.  Citizen journalism is where a non-professional or citizen plays an active and collaborative role in the process of producing and disseminating news, in order to provide independent, wide ranging and relevant information to society (Bowman and Wills in Flew 2008, 144).

The emergence of new media technologies that support produsage has spurred the growth of citizen journalism, creating new online publishing spaces where diverse voices express alternative views on news and current affairs (Adams 2006, 1). Slashdot, Wikinews, Crikey, OhMyNews and Indymedia are examples of websites which play host to online collaborative environments of citizen journalists.

Citizen journalism has brought a new dimension to the way society is consuming and engaging with news and current affairs which is challenging the practice of journalism and its role of gatekeeping.  Traditional journalists have often had an institutional resistance to audience research, with a unidirectional communication model that ignores the reader’s voice (Wilson, Saunders and Bruns 2008, 2).  As information gatekeepers they only publish what they consider relevant and important for society, whereas citizen journalists adopt the role of gatewatching which attempts to capture all relevant information with differing levels of emphasis, allowing the reader more agency (Wilson, Saunders and Bruns 2008, 2).  As argued by Flew, contrasting to traditional journalism, “citizen journalism is enabling more localised, on-the-spot narratives on current events to reach a wider audience” (Flew 2008, 92).

Citizen journalism developed from a growing dissatisfaction with traditional news media and set out to counter its unidirectional, biased and censored nature by nurturing freedom of speech and democracy (Flew, 2007, 2).  Since its beginnings these principles have seen citizen journalism achieve social justice around the world.  For example the political achievements of the Zapatista’s have been largely supported through the efforts of citizen journalists.  During an uprising led by the Zapatista’s in Mexico, the commercial media refused to publish any news on the event (Russel 2001, 400).  In an attempt have their message heard the Zapatista’s spread details of the uprising over online networks where thousands of everyday citizens around the world blogged and published stories about the Zapatista struggle (Russel 2001, 400).  International news organisations discovered these citizen stories and broadcast them across mainstream networks (Russel 2001, 400), demonstrating the power of citizen journalism to present stories which would normally be silenced.

For the professional practice of PR, the rise of citizen journalism means practitioners must seek to develop online relationships and network with prominent citizen journalist communities to ensure messages are received by publics through all possible media outlets including blogs and independent media sources.

While citizen journalism brings an alternative perspective to traditional news media, its reliability is not always comparable to professional journalism. As highlighted by Mimi in her blog Citizen Journalism: Proceed with Evaluation we must always question the accuracy of citizen journalism material.  Mimi has presented a guide to evaluating the reliability of information provided by citizen journalists.  Along with the QUT library evaluating information check list this approach should be consulted when looking to citizen journalism for news and information.

REFERENCE LIST

Adams, D. 2006. Journalism, citizens and blogging. In Proceedings 2006 Communications Policy and Research Forum, University of Technology Sydney. http://eprints.qut.edu.au/archive/00006112/01/6112_1.pdf (accessed April 22, 2009).

Bruns, A. 2007. Produsage: Towards a Broader Framework for User-Led Content Creation. Proceedings Creativity & Cognition 6: 1-7. http://eprints.qut.edu.au/6623/1/6623.pdf (accessed April 21, 2009).

Flew, T. 2007. A Citizen Journalism Primer. In Proceedings Communications Policy Research Forum 2007, University of Technology Sydney.      http://eprints.qut.edu.au/archive/00010232/01/10232.pdf (accessed April 29, 2009).

Flew. 2008. New Media: An Introduction. 3rd ed. South Melbourne: Oxford UP.

Russel, A. 2001. The Zapatistas Online: Shifting the Discourse of Globalization. Gazette 63 (5): 399-413. http://augustana.ab.ca/rdx/eng/documents/mexico/The%20Zapatistas%20Online%20-%20shifting%20the%20discourse%20of%20globalization.pdf (accessed May 1, 2009).

Wilson, J., B, Saunders and A. Bruns. 2008. “Preditors”: Making Citizen Journalism Work. In AMIC Conference: Convergence, Citizen Journalism and Social Change, Brisbane Queensland,       March 2008. 1-39. Brisbane: University of Queensland. http://eprints.qut.edu.au/17398/1/17398.pdf (accessed May 1, 2009).