Saturday, May 10, 2008

Are we all Pulitzer Prize journalists?

TEACHER: [To child] “What do you want to be when you grow up?”
CHILD: “A citizen journalist!”

I too was this child, if only for a moment, when first introduced to the concept of citizen journalism. It appeared as the future of reporting for the world, and I wanted to participate. But after reading an article by James Farmer of The Age I was gob-smacked to hear a professional’s opinion on citizen journalism. Farmer (2006) detests the naming of citizens as journalists, and I will discuss his issue in depth later. Initially however, I wanted to indicate the potentiality of citizen journalism, so that you too can make up your mind.

The established news brands have long held their oligopolies over news and current affair delivery, but no more. The citizen is now a formidable foe to the CNN’s, ESPN’s and the entire myriad of journalistic news outlets saturating the media. The YouTube video “New Media and Citizen Journalism” (a form of citizen journalism in its own right) exhibits why the practice of citizen journalism is so necessary in society.

NEW MEDIA AND CITIZEN JOURNALISM - George Dorrance


So what is citizen journalism and what does it achieve? Put simply, people are actively finding, evaluating and re-sharing information (Bruns 2008a). They are creating content and adding to the information that is widely made available to us; following the core principles of Bruns’ (2008a) produsage theory. The passive injection of information is no longer accepted. Willis and Bowman (2003) called it correctly when describing the new age citizen; “[who is] armed with easy-to-use Web publishing tools, always-on connections and increasingly powerful mobile devices, the online audience has the means to become an active participant in the creation and dissemination of news and information”. This epitomises the essence of the citizen journalist and their audiences, who may now switch and choose between the topics, and most importantly, the sources which most interest them (Negroponte 1995; WeMedia). The beauty of the citizen journalism process is openness, and with avenues such as blogs and wikis, where citizen journalists are achieving publication, there are varying levels of content control. Bruns (2008b) identifies the struggles that broadcasters of citizen journalism are facing, noting that Indymedia have long struggled to balance maximum content openness with content control. The problem with content control is that it can be taken too far, with the final product being so edited that it resembles “mainstream news media” outputs (Bruns 2008b).

So back to Farmer’s comments. Farmer (2006) is a strong believer in the profession of journalism, and states that once a citizen “collect[s], report[s], analyse[s] and disseminate[s]” information then they are no longer a citizen at all; they are now a journalist. Farmer (2006) challenges though, whether this is in fact “good” journalism (a concept Henry Jenkins explores well). He notes that sites such as Digg are simply “transparent forms of editorialising” and that OhMyNews employs “scores of editors and journalists [including students and amateurs]”; arguing that the content is no more ‘citizen’ than TV or print news. This I believe is a fair argument and perhaps we should indeed have adopted Farmer’s (2006) term “citizen media” over citizen journalism, but what’s in a name? Also Farmer’s prediction that citizen journalism will not prosper outside “uber niche areas” may be a little short sighted. Essentially we as citizen journalists are creating journalistic content, simply without qualification, and supposed objectivity that professionals must. But in no small way are we any less dedicated. The issues covered may vary significantly to those of professionals, but again we are catering to the niche, and this I feel is why citizen journalism will rise as a formidable force.

So are we “gatewatchers” as Bruns (2008c) calls it, honing in on what is in the mainstream media “repurposing… recontextualising, and reinterpreting” our own content? Are we journalists in the making? I think I am with Farmer on this one; we shouldn’t be ‘journalists’ (though the argument may be superficial), instead we should be ‘medialists’. Amateurs who have the capacity and drive to create a vast array of informative/entertaining or objective/biased or any number of binary opposed works, in text, video, audio or whatever else we choose; for the consumption (or even further use/production) of others. Citizen news is our news.

*NOTE: For further understanding I recommend following the links to Zeitgeist via the Chorazy Thoughts blog!

Bruns, A. 2008a. KCB201 Produsage. Week 8 Podcast. http://blackboard.qut.edu.au/webapps/portal/frameset.jsp?tab=courses&url=/bin/common/course.pl?course_id=_29175_1 (accessed April 23, 2008).

Bruns, A. 2008b. Blogs, Wikipedia, Second Life, and Beyond: From Production to Produsage. New York: Peter Lang.

Bruns, A. 2008c. KCB201 Citizen Journalism. Week 10 Podcast. http://blackboard.qut.edu.au/webapps/portal/frameset.jsp?tab=courses&url=/bin/common/course.pl?course_id=_29175_1 (accessed May 8, 2008).

Negroponte, N. 1995. Being Digital. New York: Vintage.