Citizen Journalism: Global Perspectives

Edited by Stuart Allan and Einar Thorsen

Published by Peter Lang (New York)

Citizen Journalism: Global Perspectives examines the spontaneous actions of ordinary people, caught up in extraordinary events, who felt compelled to adopt the role of a news reporter. This collection draws together 21 original, thought-provoking chapters. It investigates citizen journalism in the West, including the United States, United Kingdom, Europe, and Australia, as well as its development in a variety of other national contexts around the globe, including Brazil, China, India, Iran, Iraq, Kenya, Palestine, South Korea, Vietnam, and even Antarctica. It engages with several of the most significant topics for this important area of inquiry from fresh, challenging perspectives. Its aim is to assess the contribution of citizen journalism to crisis reporting, and to encourage new forms of dialogue and debate about how it may be improved in future.

When the people formerly known as the audience employ the press tools they now have in their possession to inform one another, that’s citizen journalism. It is a global phenomenon because the means for doing it have been distributed to the population at large. Therefore our ideas about it have to be global, too. And we cannot afford to be sentimental about citizens or dismissive of what professionals do. Only a book like this can get that tough-minded conversation going the right way, which is the open way. In a word, the editors have succeeded.

Professor Jay Rosen, Department of Journalism, New York University

A wonderful sampling of recent cases with a truly global scope; a happy combination of new stories and the top scholars in online journalism. Going beyond theory, this volume demonstrates the variety and impact of reporting by the people, for the people.

Professor Mindy McAdams, College of Journalism and Communications, University of Florida

Contributing authors:

Stuart Allan, Ian Ashman, Paul Bradshaw, Axel Bruns, Bart Cammaerts, Nico Carpentier, Cynthia Carter, Jia Dai, Ludo De Brabander, Mark Deuze, Tom Fiedler, Olga Guedes Bailey, Amanda L. Hughes, Gholam Khiabany, Sophia B. Liu, An Nguyen, Joyce Nip, Leysia Palen, Stephen D. Reese, Lee Salter, Barry Saunders, Jane B. Singer, Prasun Sonwalkar, Annabelle Sreberny, Jeannette Sutton, Einar Thorsen, Sarah Vieweg, Farida Vis, Melissa Wall, Jason Wilson, Chang Woo Young, Heba Zayyan, and Ethan Zuckerman.

The book will be launched at the ICA conference in May 2009.

Stuart Allan is Professor of Journalism in The Media School, Bournemouth University, UK.

Einar Thorsen is Senior Lecturer in Multimedia Journalism at the University of Teesside, UK.

Citizen Journalism: Global Perspectives is the first book in the series Global Crises and the Media edited by Simon Cottle. Read the Series Editor’s Preface for further details.

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