CITIZEN JOURNALISM

Qimin Yuan (Jessie)Oxana AstakhovaJing Ping

Outline

SummaryAnalysisQuestions

Summary – “Preditors”: Making citizen journalism work

What is citizen journalism?

“ordinary person’s capacity to bear witness, thereby providing commentators with a useful label to characterize an ostensibly new genre of reporting” (Allan, 2009)

or in other words…

Reporting of the news by private individuals, who are not professional journalists

“grassroots journalism”, “open source journalism”, “participatory journalism”, “hyperlocal journalism”, “distributed journalism”, “networked journalism”, “user-generated content”

Crowdsourcing – as a basis for citizen journalism

Crowdsourcing is the idea that a crowd of people, geographically dispersed but sharing common purpose, can achieve things better or differently to small groups of professionals and gatekeepers” (Simons, 2008)

It is transformation from “journalism as a lecture” to “journalism as a conversation” (Gilmor, 2006)

Semi-pro journalism – as an effi cient model of citizen journalism

Semi-pro journalism is a combination of “ground work of average citizens or inexperienced journalists with editorial and production expertise of professional journalists”

Who are “PREDITORS”?

Preditor

=

Producing + editing + organizing

=

facilitator of “journalism as a conversation”

Preditor’s abilities must include: be comfortable with writing and editing copy,

be cognizant of publishing law and regulation,

have a strong sense of news values and be committed to ethical standards, and balance and fairness in their own practice.

have the ability to establish collaborative interpersonal and professional relationships and webs of content syndication, across the online news environment.

have the capacity to serve, guide and sometimes manage a content-making community that includes not just readers, but users who have become, in effect, colleagues.

Youdecide 2007

Dimensions of Preditor’s Role:

 Content work

 Networking

 Community work

 Technical work

Content Work

editing and producing original content

ensuring that user-submitted stories meet legal, regulatory, ethical and quality requirements

ensuring that user-submitted stories providing “pro” content that drives visits, publicity, syndications and further contributions to the site.

Networking

making advantageous connections with existing, established online and offline news outlets

ensuring that content is delivered and sourced across a number of platforms and of entrepreneurially mobilizing on and offline networks

Community work

bringing people to the service and keeping communities engaged with on-site content and one another

Providing participating community with

Training

site-specific information

mediation.

Technical Work

on-site technical work

off-site technical work

“meta-tech” work

Citizen Journalism

Amateur Journalists

Mainstream Journalism

Professional Journalists

Relationship between Amateur & Professional Journalists

• How can they survive?• What are their potential role in the society?• What are their co-influences and conflicts?

TrainingProfessionOpen-mindedTake more advantages of online & mobile technologies

RespectCommunicationSocial relationshipNetworkTechnologies

CITIZEN JOURNALISM vs MAINSTREAM JOURNALISM

CITIZEN JOURNALISM vs MAINSTREAM JOURNALISM

quality of content

conversational tools

news angle

trustworthiness

legal issue

readers flow to the website

risks

finance flow

danger

Do you still have to study to be a JOURNALIST?

If anyone can be a reporter?

If anyone can be called journalist?

Short Survey Inside the Class

Further Analysis on Citizen Journalism CRISES

Natural and human disasters

Scandal of the government

Politics

Social issues Violation of human rights

Price of food vs. Level of salary & wages

Fair work & Fair trading

CITIZEN JOURNALISM TODAY

http://ireport.cnn.com/

http://www.nowpublic.com/

CITIZEN JOURNALISM TODAY

http://www.digitaljournal.com/

http://www.spot.us/

CITIZEN JOURNALISM TODAY

CITIZEN JOURNALISM TODAY

http://www.cbseyemobile.com/

http://english.aljazeera.net/

http://sharek.aljazeera.net/

CITIZEN JOURNALISM TODAY

Main tools:

camera

mobile phone / smartphone

internet: websites, blogs, social networks

CITIZEN JOURNALISM = DIGITAL JOURNALISM

CITIZEN JOURNALISM TODAY

Main influences on development or stagnation of CJ:

technological development - devices

access to internet and mobile

government regulations

Questions In the interrelated process of the development of

technologies and citizen journalism, which one is the facilitator and which one is the follower?

What kind of news you would prefer to read and you would rely more in the mainstream media and what kind in the citizen journalism, i.e. crisis in citizen journalism and science news in biology in the mainstream one? Why?

The biggest exposure of the citizen journalism comes in crises, like natural and human disasters, politics, violation of human rights and etc. If we consider that there is no more crises in the world, do you believe citizen journalism will still exist focusing only on art, science, happy people’s lives and other exclusively positive things? And do you think it still will be so popular and claimed?