The Rise of Citizen Journalismby Frankie Mao

@FrankestFrankiehttp://frankestpress.wordpress.com

The Reading – Bearing witness: citizen journalism and human rights issues

by Sarah Joseph (2012)

• introduces citizen journalism by illustrating ordinary citizens made great contribution to report 2004 Indonesia Tsunami

• e.g. “Fred” in Jaffna, Sri Lanka, posted the photos he took showing smashed houses

Illustrates how citizen journalists in India and occupied Palestinian territories chased after human rights

e.g. Malom incident (November 2, 2000) & health situation of Irom Sharmila Chanu

What is citizen journalism?Who are citizen journalists?

What do citizen journalists do?

In the old days: We read what we have

In this day and age: We read what we can find

Web 2.0News 2.0

Web 2.0 allows users to participate into news communication and publish information freely and easily over the Internet, by which most of news media encourage their audiences to send them any newsworthy information, photos, videos (Bakker, et al. 2008)

Generally, citizen journalism refers that people without journalistic training use social media based on Internet to create, augment or fact-check media their own, or in collaboration with others (Glaser, 2006).

Case - China High-speed-rail Collision July 23, 2011

Weibo was the first media reporting the crash A passenger tweet

Weibo users• shared photos,• reported the recue, • argued the possible causes • questioned authorities’ measures, • express sadness

“Help! No.D301 has run off the rails and stopped not far from Southern Wenzhou Station. Children are crying in the coach!”

Citizen Journalists: an important news source for Mainstream Media

One of the reason citizen journalists want to express themselves is what they want to say means so much to the public but is often ignored by professional journalists (Bentley, 2011).

“They attacked us with glass and burnt us with lit cigarettes. My face is burnt and totally disfigured! Worst of all, I really hated their racist comments”- Xuan via Weibo

Case: Chinese studentsattacked on Sydney train

SMH (July 24, 2012)'This city is so dangerous': outrage in China over Sydney train assault

“A terrifying assault on Sydney train passengers has left two international students seriously injured and caused a media storm in China.”

WatchdogIn journalism, a “watchdog” means a journalist invest illegal things, such as corruption, similar to investigation journalism.

Citizen Journalists Chase after Human RightsThe role of citizen journalists has been highlighted in Arabian

Spring, especially for reflecting how citizen fought for democracy and freedom.

http://youtu.be/S99W3NI9bYQ

•observe the entire system of their nations as well as news outlets • focusing on publicizing the availability of important information which dose matter to the public (Bruns, 2010)

U.S.Political & Economic

issue

ChinaOfficials’ scandals

&Unfair treatment

Bakker, T, Schonbach, K, de Vreese, C, ‘Blogging: journalism as usual’, The Amsterdam School of Communications Research, University of Amsterdam, September 2008. BBC, 2012, About- Watchdog [Online] Available at: http://www.bbc.co.uk/watchdog/about/ [Accessed July 27, 2012]

Bentley, C 2011, ‘Citizen journalism: back to the facts’, Geopolitics, History, and International Relations, vol.3(1), pp. 103-118.

References

Bruns, A 2010, ‘From Reader to Writer: Citizen Journalism as News Produsage’. In Hunsinger, Jeremy, Lisbeth Klastrup & Matthew Allen (Eds.) Internet Research Handbook. Springer, Dordrecht, pp. 119-134, [Online] Available at: http://snurb.info/files/2010/From%20Reader%20to%20Writer.pdf [Accessed July 18, 2012]

Cai, P 2012, ‘”This city is so dangerous”: outrage in China over Sydney train assault’, Sydney MorningHerald, 24 April 2012, [Online] Available at: http://www.smh.com.au/national/this-city-is-so-dangerous-outrage-in-china-over-sydney-train-assault-20120424-1xiv4.html [Accessed July 24,2012]

Glaser, M 2006, ‘Your Guide to Citizen Journalism’, Available online at: http://www.pbs.org/mediashift/2006/09/your-guide-to-citizen-journalism270.html [Accessed July 24, 2012]

DiscussionCould mainstream media survive the rise of

citizen journalism? Why?Do you think quality journalism has fallen?How to maintain the journalistic quality?

End

Thank You