Social Media and

Citizen Journalism

Lauren Sfeir

WHAT IS CITIZEN JOURNALISM?

“ordinary citizens offering…”

“their first hand reports”“digital photographs”

“camcorder video footage”“mobile telephone snapshots”

“audio clips”(Allan et al, 2007)

WHAT IS CITIZEN JOURNALISM?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=58iZpMRclwI

WHAT IS CITIZEN JOURNALISM?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QcYSmRZuep4&feature=related

WHAT IS CITIZEN JOURNALISM?

“based upon public citizens "playing an active role in the process of collecting, reporting, analysing, and disseminating news and information.”

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Citizen_journalism

Bowman, S. and Willis, C. "We Media: How Audiences are Shaping the Future of News and Information." 2003, The Media Center at the American Press Institute.

“You can really get a good consensus picture of what’s going on that’s stronger than any one news organisation could offer… So many people are on the ground in different places. And people pick up very quickly which are the bloggers to read, and they bring that information forefront and amplify it”

- Jimmy Wales, founder of Wikipedia

(Allan et al)

Wikipedia

Partnership

Journalists + Citizens

Partnership

Example – London bombings

“our reporting on this story was a genuine collaboration, enabled by consumer technology…the result was transformational in its impact … From now on, news coverage is a partnership”

(Sambrook, 2005)

(Sambrook, 2005.)

Partnership

Why have citizen journalism?

“As the Crisis deepens, the journalism has not.”

(Schechter, 2005)

“What we need is “inside out” and bottom up coverage”

(Schechter, 2005)

Value of citizen journalism

“We can actively ask questions of our audience that can build a rapid picture of unfolding events”

(Horrocks, 2008.)

Time to talk

In what ways do you think citizenship journalism successful?

How much of citizen journalism is fact, and how much is opinion?

Time to talk

What are the positives and negatives of citizen journalism?

Does citizen journalism have a positive or a negative impact on traditional journalism?