Depending on whom you ask, citizen journalism is either pushing journalism forward or is unaccountable vigilantism. Either way, it is shaping the way we consume our news. Surely ordinary citizens were documenting and discussing news events before the advent of the internet but what separates citizen journalism from pure observation is the using the net as an avenue to either aid or circumvent traditional media outlets and spread the news independently. Average Joes can take their own photos, record their own video and recount a story through blogs or other social media, often more quickly than a media organization can begin to report and in a more organic way than is usually presented by mainstream media.
Created by 10000words on Mar 30, 2009
Last updated: 03/11/10 at 10:45 PM
When U.S. Airways Flight 1549 crash-landed in the Hudson River it was for some news organizations the first mention of Twitter, or more specifically Janis Kruns' tweet and photo of the 155 passengers being rescued from the downed aircraft. While traditional news orgs quickly picked up the story, they still lagged behind those citizens empowered by social media who broke the story first.
News of the New Years Day shooting of 22-year-old Oscar Grant by a BART police officer ignited a community after the dramatic video captured by witnesses was posted to YouTube. Soon thereafter local news stations were using the amateur footage when no other video was available. Subsequent protests — some peaceful, some violent — were photographed and posted to Flickr, giving the world insight on what otherwise may have been a local story.
The terrorist attacks on Mumbai and the subsequent reports on Twitter, Flickr and elsewhere raised ethical questions: do such immediate reports actually endanger the lives of others? Some of the thought confirmed attack sites were later revealed to be unconfirmed rumors and TV networks were condemned for revealing the possible location of those refugees still in harm's way.
Two of the biggest gotcha quotes of the 2008 U.S. presidential election season — Obama's reference to "bitter" small-town Americans who "cling to guns or religion or antipathy to people who aren't like them" and Bill Clinton's reaction to Vanity Fair writer Todd Purdum, calling him "slimy" and "dishonest" were documented by an online journalist with no ties to a mainstream news organization. Mayhill Fowler, a citizen journalist reporting for the Huffington Post's Off the Bus news project, captured the off-the-cuff moments with a handheld recorder and a little persistence.
In the face of the government's violent reaction to anti-government protests, many Burmese turned to the internet to alert the world to the violence occurring in the remote country. Grainy video and photos shot on mobile phones were circulated around the world and the country's bloggers posted first and second hand accounts of the bloody struggle. The Burmese government worked quickly to shut down internet access, but not before the world was exposed to the tragic events.
Local and national TV stations and newspapers did an adequate job of covering the destructive fires that blackened much of California, but it was the citizen journalists who uploaded video to YouTube, posted Twitter updates and submitted amateur media to news stations that really provided the up-to-the-minute coverage many fire victims were so desperately seeking.
The cell phone video shot by Virginia Tech student Jamal Albarghouti was not only an alarming encapsulation of the shooting that left 32 dead and 23 wounded, it was also viewed by millions of people on CNN and on YouTube. News of the shooting was disseminated first through text messages and blogs to those who were unaware about what was happening on campus. Some questioned whether the student-shot video was actually journalism, but as we've seen from previous examples, despite its amateurish nature it no doubt contributed to how others received the story.
News of the bombing that killed 52 people and injured more than 770 was heightened by videos and photos taken with cell phones by passengers aboard the train during the attacks. Usually traditional news stories are shot from behind the police tape, often with a wide shot that doesn't reveal the telling details of the situation. But the user submitted photos and video that appeared shortly after the explosions were vividly real and told the story of the crime in a way traditional media never could.
The coverage of the deadly tsunami that rocked Southeast Asia was remarkable not only for its images of the devastation captured by those in affected areas, but also for social media's role in providing relief during the aftermath. Tourists who otherwise would have been capturing the beauty of area beaches instead captured the tsunami as it landed, providing firsthand accounts that were circulated around the globe. Blogs and groups on social networks like Facebook were also quickly established to provide information to both victims and the rest of the world.
A common complaint about mainstream media is that readers/viewers are expected to believe everything they are told without verifying information for themselves. After Dan Rather presented supposedly authenticated documents on 60 Minutes that impugned President George W. Bush's service in the Air National Guard, many bloggers weren't buying it. Average Joes pointed out that the purportedly circa 1973 typewritten memos that were presented on CBS were likely written in a modern, computer-based font. The claims of authenticity were later retracted and several of those involved with the story were fired.
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