Citizen Journalism: Global Perspectives

The Iraq war provides the backdrop for Wall’s (Chapter 2) analysis of the recent wave of warblogs- “a feisty new genre of blog that focused specifically on the terrorism wars”-written by Iraqis from within the war zone, and milblogs, written by current or former soldiers. Of particular interest is the way in which institutional forces have sought to censor and intimidate bloggers and even to use their “grassroots authenticity as a cover for sophisticated war information operations.” Despite this, she argues, citizen journalism is poised to have a central position in the future “as amateurs play an even larger role in providing audiences with first-hand information about the world.”

Author: Melissa Wall