Empowerment is a crucial tenet of citizen journalism in India, a democracy with over one billion people. Sonwalkar (Chapter 5) argues that this new form of reporting is having an increasingly influential political function in highlighting social problems, such as the impact of severe poverty on those at the margins of public life. In a society where women, for example, “are seen as inferior and, in many cases, subjected to domestic violence,” blogging has enabled pressure groups to spark public discussion and debate “in a way that the mainstream news media have never done.” Citizen journalism, Sonwalkar points out, is being increasingly recognized as a powerful force in this regard.
Author: Prasun Sonwalkar