Citizen journalism has redefined the way news is reported. In 2006, Professor of Journalism Roy Greenslade said, “I expect citizen journalism to really take off at regional and local level: citizens reporting about what goes on in their area, on their street” (Zweynert, A).
Greenslade was referring to citizen journalism in Britain and it is fair to say that his prediction has most certainly transpired not only in this country but also on a global level. The development and intertwining of social media and mobile phone technology has enabled people the ability to instantly record and report any occurrences.
Recent events like Occupy Wall Street and the Arab Spring uprisings have been reported from an innumerable amount of different sources, offering a wider range of scope and interpretation that would not have been feasible before.
The London bombings of July 2005 “marked a watershed”, according to BBC News Director Helen Boaden. It was “the point at which the BBC knew that newsgathering had changed forever” (Boaden, H). Boaden compares Abraham Zapruder’s 1963 video footage of the assassination of President Kennedy to the reporting of 7/7. The exclusivity of Zapruder’s video earned him $150,000 when he sold it to Life Magazine a few days after the assassination. However, fast-forward to 2005 and the BBC received 1000 stills and videos, 3000 text messages and 20,000 emails within 24 hours of the incident.
The BBC has embraced this shift in journalism. It currently employs over 20 members of staff to manage through 12,000 emails and approximately 200 videos and photos a day (Thorsen, E). Boaden wrote:
There are great and positive opportunities for journalism and for reinforcing citizenship. And "we" can't wait for "them" to come to us. Smart news organisations are engaging audiences and opening themselves up to the conversation our audiences clearly want (Boaden, H).
Other news networks have shown to share Boaden’s vision. CNN launched its iReport in 2006 where citizens, from anywhere around the world, could submit stories, photos and videos of any breaking news. The website contains only user-generated-content (UGC) and iReport draws attention to the fact that content is not “edited, fact-checked or screened before they post” and that only content marked “On CNN” has been appropriately examined by the network (Thorne, E).
However, iReport was criticised heavily in 2008 when a UGC story claimed that Steve Jobs suffered a heart attack and was rushed to hospital. As a consequence of the report, Apple’s stocked dropped by $10 billion in a matter of minutes before later recovering (Daily Mail Reporter). It was argued that CNN’s credibility had been severely damaged and raised questions over whether or not the news network should contain any UGC. Professor Jeff Jarvis however stated:
It's a mistake to say this indicates some type of larger problem. People start rumours on Wall Street all the time. Anyone with any sanity would have said I'm going to check that out, not I'm going to sell all my stock. (Hargreaves, S).
Doubts over the veracity of citizen journalism will justifiably remain however in a time where news organisations are cutting costs this form of journalism will continue to appeal. Mainstream media promotes citizen journalism in three main ways.
It has provided the facility for commenting on an existing news piece which can often lead to deep discussion and debate and further enrich the story.
Mainstream media also encourages crowdsourcing. The Guardian frequently adopts this approach when delivering live blogs. This is when a reporter covering a story invites the general public to assist in checking facts and developing the story. A great example of this was the Guardian’s coverage of the High Court hearing regarding the sale of Liverpool FC in 2010. People contributed to the coverage through the comments section, email and Twitter.
The other way is by creating UGC dedicated websites like the aforementioned iReport (Jurrat, N). Solely UGC websites, like YouTube, Demotix and Wikinews have become more popular over the years as they have provided fresh and sometimes emotional insight into news events.
Citizen journalism has also been beneficial when news organisations have been banned from a country. In Iran, before the presidential election in 2009, the Iranian authorities restricted all foreign media from first-hand reporting on the streets (Choudhari, H). The local media was under government control and oppositional journalists were imprisoned. The only reports of the demonstrations and violent crackdowns came from Iranian citizens who uploaded content to personal blogs, social websites or sent it directly to international media. A mobile phone video recording of Iranian student Neda Agha Soltan dying after being shot by the Basij militia was seen all over the world after it was posted onto YouTube. The video compelled government officials around the world as well as the Iranian government to comment on the political developments in Iran (Jurrat, N).
The risks of citizen journalism are clear however. Citizen journalists are not professional journalists and are therefore not bound by any ethical code. Reports can be biased and unfounded. A clear distinction is needed between what is UGC and what is a verifiable report from a professional journalist. This is not always the case as some websites combine UGC with reports from staff members making it difficult to distinguish which reports have been checked out and which have not.
Professional journalism is not necessarily under threat from citizen journalism. The two forms of journalism can co-exist and thrive off one another. News organisations can educate citizens on ways to improve their reporting resulting in a better standard of citizen journalism and also a wider range of reliable sources.
References:
Boaden, H. (2008). The role of citizen journalism in modern democracy . Available: http://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/theeditors/2008/11/the_role_of_citizen_journalism.html. Last accessed 30th Oct 2011
Choudhari, H. (2009). Reporting Iran: Getting around restrictions. Available: http://www.bbc.co.uk/worldservice/worldagenda/2009/09/090908_worldagenda_iran_2.shtml. Last accessed 30th Oct 2011.
Daily Mail Reporter. (2008). Apple loses almost $10billion in four-minute 'flash crash' after rumour of Steve Jobs in hospital. Available: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1356034/As-Apple-shares-drop-Steve-Jobs-said-calling-shots.html. Last accessed 30th Oct 2011.
Hargreaves, S. (2008). Apple's stock hit by Web rumour. Available: http://money.cnn.com/2008/10/03/technology/apple/. Last accessed 30th Oct 2011.
Jurrat, N. (2011). Mapping Digital Media: Citizen Journalism and the Internet. Available: https://docs.google.com/viewer?a=v&q=cache:cpTZdhtxl4sJ:www.soros.org/initiatives/media/articles_publications/publications/mapping-digital-media-citizen-journalism-20110712/OSF-Media-Report-Handbook-C. Last accessed 30th Oct 2011.
Thorsen, E (2009). Citizen Journalism: Global Perspectives. New York: Peter Yang. 4-5
Zweynert, A. (2006). Citizen journalism climbing up the UK media ladder. Available: http://blogs.reuters.com/mediafile/2006/04/28/citizen-journalism-climbing-up-the-uk-media-ladder/. Last accessed 30th Oct 2011.
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