Citizen Journalism: Global Perspectives

Citizen journalism from within a conflict zone is the focus of Zayyan and Carter’s (Chapter 6) discussion, which explores how bloggers in the Occupied Palestinian Territories “have helped to tell a truth different from the one frequently related in the mainstream media in many countries.” Many of these citizen journalists choose to write in English instead of Arabic so as to reach a global audience with their message and to plea for basic human rights. Zayyan and Carter argue that in so doing, “Palestinian citizen journalism is shifting the terms of debate on the conflict in the Middle-East.” This reporting embodies a “simple hope,” namely that by raising awareness of their suffering, “pressure will be brought to bear on politicians around the world to help end it.”

Authors: Heba Zayyan and Cynthia Carter

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

In Chapter 1, Allan sets the scene for the book’s discussion by exploring what counts as “citizen journalism” from varied historical perspectives. Beginning with a brief overview of the emergence of the internet as a “new news medium,” he proceeds to examine several crises where the reporting of ordinary citizens made a vitally important contribution. Examples include natural disasters (such as earthquakes and hurricanes), political scandal, and the tragedies of terrorism, conflict, and war, among others. Allan’s aim is to discern the emergent ecology of citizen journalism as it has been negotiated through the exigencies of crisis reporting.

Author: Stuart Allan