Citizen Journalism: Global Perspectives

Reese and Dai, in Chapter 18, explore the role of citizen journalists acting as media critics-both against domestic and international media- arguing that the Chinese blogosphere is increasingly featuring posts and comments that in their view are a form of public deliberation. Nationalism, they argue, suits the interests of the Chinese government, which has given citizens free range in criticizing the Western media-attacking CNN for discrepancies in its coverage of the Tibet riots and negative framing of the Olympic Torch relay, for instance. Conversely, they demonstrate how citizen reporters also critique domestic professional journalistic principles, forcing action on issues that would otherwise have been ignored. In the context of globalization, they contend, these developments point to new ways of understanding social change.

Authors: Stephen D. Reese and Jia Dai

The 2008 US presidential election marked a historic shift in American politics through the election of Barack Obama. One of the key characteristics of this campaign was the coming of age of the Internet, which is explored by Fiedler in Chapter 17. His discussion begins with the occasion on which Obama encountered Mayhill Fowler, a citizen journalist, at a campaign fundraising event that was off-limits to the mainstream press. Obama’s off-the-cuff remarks about the reasons why some working-class voters might feel embittered about politics, dutifully relayed by Fowler in a blog, sparked news headlines around the world. This was a crisis of an unusual sort for the Obama campaign to address, one that helped to reveal the changing nature of election campaigns in the age of the Internet.

Author: Tom Fiedler

The 2007 Australian federal election, in contrast, will be remembered for more peaceful reasons, most notably the incumbent prime minister losing his seat and the increasingly significant role of citizen media during the campaign. In Chapter 16 Bruns, Wilson, and Saunders explore the tension that developed between bloggers and mainstream media such as The Australian, with the latter attacking citizen journalists for having the audacity to criticize its election analysts. Experiences from the authors’ involvement in the hyperlocal citizen journalism project, Youdecide2007, are also shared. Based on this experiment, the chapter concludes with a proposal to “transcend the stale ‘pro-am’ dichotomy” by putting forth a concept of “journalism as social networking.” The authors here highlight four dimensions in which they argue “professional practice is changing to accommodate citizen-generated content.”

Authors: Axel Bruns, Jason Wilson, and Barry Saunders

Peaceful protests are in stark contrast to some of the practices uncovered during the 2007 Kenyan presidential election crisis by Zuckerman (Chapter 15). He reveals how bloggers took on the role of reporters in documenting the election process and mapping the violence that ensued following the disputed result, providing a crucial source of information following the government’s ban on live media. However, citizen media and text messaging were also used in a more sinister way to mobilize different ethnic groups against each other. Attempts at moderating such hateful content led Kenya’s leading bulletin board site to shut down, while the government decided to block bulk text messages. Technologies “useful for reporting and peacemaking,” Zuckerman warns, “are also useful for rumor mongering and incitement to violence.”

Author: Ethan Zuckerman

Despite Vietnam being listed as one of the 13 “enemies of the Internet” in 2006 by Reporters Without Borders, Nguyen (Chapter 12) argues that citizen journalism has “developed quite vigorously” there. Indeed, he illustrates how it has seen a spectacular rise in recent years, establishing a reputation for breaking news-often reporting events that would have been ignored by mainstream media as too controversial. In this way, citizen journalists are helping to create a realm of debate where the authority of the state can be called into question. The blogosphere has prospered, in Nguyen’s view, not simply because of technological advances, but also because of the governing regime’s “confident tolerance” in allowing such activities to take place.

Author: An Nguyen

One of the most frequently cited examples of citizen journalism is the role of OhmyNews during the 2002 South Korean presidential election, a time when democracy itself was perceived to be in a crisis of legitimacy. Woo Young (Chapter 11) illustrates how the website functions as a counterbalance to the otherwise conservative media, maintaining that citizen journalism is integral to improving the country’s democratic system as it ensures that the diversity of South Korea’s public opinion is recognized. Indeed, the popularity of the citizen reporting at the heart of OhmyNews has made it the largest, most influential online newspaper in the country.

Author: Chang Woo Young

Khiabany and Sreberny (Chapter 9) address questions of citizenship and journalistic professionalism in an authoritarian regime by exploring the re-inflection of a more Western conceptualization of citizen journalism in relation to Iran’s radically different political setting. The Persian blogosphere, they demonstrate, provides a space for trade unions, radical student groups, and women’s movements to voice their plight, which is otherwise ignored by the traditional, state-controlled mass media. They show how citizenship and journalism are both experiencing a revival through innovative and alternative forms of expression in response to the political context.

Authors: Gholam Khiabany and Annabelle Sreberny