Citizen Journalism: Global Perspectives

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